Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, President of the 15-member Security Council for October, said the Security Council would recommend to the General Assembly as new Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Mr. Guterres was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015 and earlier Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.
According to BBC on line news dated 5 October, the Security Council cast secret ballots for each of the 10 candidates on Wednesday, 5 October. They were asked to select from a choice of ‘encourage’, ‘discourage’ or ‘no opinion’ for each candidate. No member cast opposed Mr. Guterres who reportedly received 13 ‘encourage’ votes and two ‘no opinion’ votes. Mr. Guterrres beat nine other candidates, including EU budget commissioner Kristalina Georgieva from Bulgaria, to become the next UN chief.
