The latest straw poll in the selection of the next U.N. secretary-general on Friday showed that none of the seven candidates has the support of all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, all of whom have veto power.
This leaves the door open for new candidates if none of the current candidates is able to win over the veto-wielding members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — in the race to succeed António Guterres, who has led the United Nations for almost 10 years.
As in five previous straw polls, the 15 council members voted to “encourage” or “discourage” the seven candidates or express “no opinion," but this secret poll was the first to use red ballots to distinguish votes from the five powers.
