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UN vote amid Ukraine war
The UN Security Council held a second informal straw poll to gauge support for candidates seeking to succeed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will complete his second five-year term at the end of the year, with the process unfolding amid deep divisions within the organisation.
“An unofficial second poll conducted today, Friday, showed Caroline Rodríguez-Pérciet from Guyana leading”
The Reuters profile of the race says the tenth UN Secretary-General will be elected to take office for a five-year term starting on January 1, 2027, and it places Rafael Grossi, a 65-year-old Argentine diplomat and head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, among the contenders.
In the same Reuters account, it notes that Grossi’s work includes sending a small IAEA team to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is under Russian control.
The UN-linked context in the Reuters material also ties the candidacy field to the wider security agenda, while a separate report says the Security Council held an emergency meeting on the Ukraine-Russia war at UN Headquarters in New York on July 27, 2026.
A France 24 overview adds that Guyanese ex-foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett narrowly led the second round, while Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan had been the front-runner last month when the Security Council held a first informal vote.
Quotes and process details
The Reuters race profile says Grossi drew attention for his negotiations aimed at salvaging parts of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and major powers after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of it in 2018, and it frames his candidacy as tied to the support of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
In that same Reuters account, Rebecca Greenstein says she would withdraw from duties until September to avoid conflicts of interest during the campaign and tells Reuters that she does not seek special treatment but calls for equal treatment.
A separate report on the Security Council’s voting mechanism says the 15 council members anonymously assign each candidate one of the following ratings: "support", "do not support" or "no opinion."
The Sky News Arabia report also quotes Zénon Ngay Mokongo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ambassador to the U.N. and a Council member, saying that "reaching any consensus remains premature."
It further explains that if a candidate receives support from nine member states in the Security Council, he or she must avoid using veto power by any of the five permanent members, which the report lists as the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom.
What’s at stake next
The stakes for the UN leadership contest are explicitly linked to conflict management in the Xinhua report, which says Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu told the General Assembly that urgent priority must be given to combatting the intensification of deadly conflicts that threaten entire regions and the entire world.
“ending the crisis in Ukraine”
Xinhua adds that Otunnu pledged to support UN member states in ending the crisis in Ukraine and to back current diplomatic efforts to reach a comprehensive peace agreement in the Iranian conflict, while also supporting a joint and more coordinated response to combat terrorism in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.
In the same Xinhua coverage, Ecuadorian diplomat Ivonne A-Baki said she aspires to be a leader, not a manager, and she told the General Assembly, "My star for this global body is not necessarily reform. It is renewal—the renewal of the promise to consolidate peace and avert war."
The Reuters and France 24 descriptions of the selection process emphasize that even with Security Council support, a candidate must avoid a veto from one of the council’s five permanent members, and that the Security Council’s endorsement is followed by General Assembly confirmation.
France 24 also notes that a candidate must also avoid a veto from one of the council's five permanent members, and it says the Security Council chooses the future UN chief before submitting the name for approval by the General Assembly.