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THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL

Ban Ki-moon is the Secretary-General of the UN

On 13 October 2006, the General Assembly appointed by acclamation Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea as the 8th UN Secretary-General. Mr Ban succeeded Kofi Annan when he stepped down on 31 December 2006.

Click here to read his biography.

On 13 October 2006, Lord Hannay of Chiswick wrote to the Secretary-General designate on behalf of the Board of Directors and members of UNA-UK. Read the letter here.
©UN Photo

HOW BAN WAS SELECTED
THE SEARCH FOR THE NEW SECRETARY-GENERAL

Secretary-General Kofi Annan's term of office expired on 31 December 2006. The decision to appoint his succesor was taken by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.

There were six officially declared candidates for the post of Secretary-General. Surakiart Sathirathai of Thailand, Prince Zeid of Jordan, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, Shashi Tharoor of India, Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan and Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga of Latvia. Jayantha Dhanapala, Sri Lanka's candidate for Secretary-General, withdrew his candidacy following the results of the third straw poll. Below is an overview of the voting results.

Security Council third straw poll: results
On 28 September 2006 the Security Council held another straw poll for UN Secretary-General:

  Encourage Discourage No opinion
Ban Ki Moon 13 1 1
Shashi Tharoor 8 3 4
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga 7 6 2
Surakiart Sathirathai 5 7 3
Prince Zeid 3 6 6
Ashraf Ghani 3 6 6
Jayantha Dhanapala 3 7 5

Security Council second straw poll: results
On 14 September 2006 Ban Ki-Moon and Shashi Tharoor once again topped a Security Council straw poll for UN Secretary-General. The results, which do not distinguish between the votes of permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council, were as follows:

  Encourage Discourage No opinion
Ban Ki Moon 14 1 0
Shashi Tharoor 10 3 2
Surakiart Sathirathai 9 3 3
Prince Zeid 6 4 5
Jayantha Dhanapala 3 5 7

Security Council first straw poll: results
On 25 July 2006 Ban Ki-Moon and Shashi Tharoor topped a Security Council straw poll for UN Secretary-General:

  Encourage Discourage No opinion
Ban Ki Moon 12 1 2
Shashi Tharoor 10 2 3
Surakiart Sathirathai 7 3 5
Jayantha Dhanapala 5 6 4

Click on the button above to link to the official UN pages on the Secretary-General.

SELECTING THE NEXT SECRETARY-GENERAL: ARTICLE BY LORD HANNAY
Lord Hannay of Chiswick, Chair of UNA-UK, called for reforms of the way in which the United Nations Secretary-General is appointed in an article in the Financial Times on 23 March 2006.

Lord Hannay's suggestions include: an end to the system of regional rotation; P5 agreement not to use the veto in the appointment process; that the new Secretary-General should be appointed to a single, seven-year, non-renewable term; and that the appointment of a new Secretary-General and that of his Deputy should be seen as a single ticket, even if the procedures for appointment remain separate.


REPORTS ON THE SELECTION OF A SECRETARY-GENERAL

  • UNA-USA: Selecting the next Secretary-General:
     [pdf - link]
  • Security Council Report: second special research report on the appointment of a Secretary-General
    [link]
  • Security Council Report: special research report on the appointment of a Secretary-General
    [link]


 

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