2016 United Nations Secretary-General selection

2016 United Nations Secretary-General selection
← 2006 Final straw poll: 5 October 2016 2021 →
 
Nominee António Guterres Irina Bokova Vuk Jeremić
Country  Portugal  Bulgaria  Serbia
Votes to encourage
13 / 15
7 / 15
7 / 15
P5 votes to discourage
0 / 5
2 / 5
3 / 5
 
Nominee Miroslav Lajčák Helen Clark
Country  Slovakia  New Zealand
Votes to encourage
7 / 15
6 / 15
P5 votes to discourage
2 / 5
3 / 5
Secretary-General before election

Ban Ki-moon

 Elected Secretary-General

António Guterres

A United Nations Secretary-General selection was held in October 2016 to choose the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations to succeed Ban Ki-moon from 1 January 2017. Six straw polls were held in the Security Council from 21 July 2016 to 5 October 2016. António Guterres of Portugal led the polling in every round, finishing the last round with 13 'encourage' votes, 0 'discourage' votes, and 2 abstentions.[1] On 6 October 2016, the Security Council unanimously recommended Guterres to the General Assembly,[2] which formally selected him by acclamation on 13 October 2016.[3]

The 2016 selection was much more open than previous selections, with public nominations being sought and candidates participating in televised debates. Women and Eastern Europeans were favoured, as no woman had ever served as secretary-general, and the Eastern European Group was the only one of the UN Regional Groups never to have held the office.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference wfuna_tweet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "United Nations Official Document".
  3. ^ "António Guterres appointed next UN Secretary-General by acclamation". 13 October 2016.
  4. ^ "The most powerful diplomat of the world—Will an Eastern European Woman be the next UN Secretary General?". Association of Foreign Affairs. 12 April 2016. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2016.