The term of current United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expires on Dec. 31. Members of the U.N. Security Council will first select a candidate to recommend for the post for a five-year term. The U.N. General Assembly will then vote to appoint the new secretary-general.
Turkey has also officially nominated a candidate, Feridun Sinirlioğlu, secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He joins other officially declared contenders for the post:
- Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nominated by Argentina;
- Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), nominated by Costa Rica;
- María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Ecuador’s former foreign and defence minister, nominated by Antigua and Barbuda;
- Caroline Rodriguez-Birkett, Guyana’s permanent representative to the United Nations, backed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM);
- Yvonne Baki, Ecuador’s former ambassador to the United States and France, nominated by the Kingdom of Tonga;
- Olara Otunnu, Uganda’s former permanent representative to the United Nations;
- Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, a minister of state at the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For the first time, member states are seeking to see a woman at the helm of the international organisation. This makes the UAE diplomat Lana Nusseibeh a leading contender and a potential consensus candidate for the top U.N. post.
