Rodrigues Birkett Leads UN Secretary-General Race

Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett from Guyana has emerged as the frontrunner in the race for the next United Nations Secretary-General, following the second secret straw poll conducted by the Security Council on August 21, 2023. Birkett garnered eight encourage votes, three discourage votes, and four no opinion votes.

This positions her ahead of Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan, who received seven encourage votes, four discourage votes, and four no opinion votes, a decline from her ten encourage votes in the first poll on July 30. Other candidates included Argentina's Rafael Grossi with seven encourage votes, Senegal's Macky Sall with six, and Uganda's candidate Otunnu, who increased his encourage votes from two to five.

None of the candidates achieved the nine affirmative votes necessary for a substantive Council decision, as stipulated in Article 27 of the UN Charter. Daniel Forti from the International Crisis Group noted that the voting patterns indicate the permanent five members of the Council are beginning to express their preferences more openly.