Overview
- The Security Council held its first informal straw poll on Thursday, July 30, to test support among seven nominees for Antonio Guterres’s successor.
- Diplomatic tallies circulated after the closed vote showed Rebeca Grynspan with the most “encourage” marks and Carolyn Rodrigues‑Birkett in a close second, but the Council president refused to make the official numbers public.
- The Council will continue confidential rounds of voting until a candidate wins at least nine of 15 votes and receives no veto from any of the five permanent members.
- Later rounds use colour‑coded ballots for the five permanent members to reveal any vetoes, so the preferences of the U.S., China, Russia, France and the U.K. are likely to shape a protracted selection process.
- The straw‑poll method dates to the early 1980s and is intended to narrow the field quietly; this contest raises pressure for the UN’s first woman secretary‑general and could influence the agenda for reform and agency consolidation under the next leader.