UN Begins Selection Process For Next Secretary-General

President of the UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft

The process for the selection of the next UN Secretary-General will begin on Tuesday in New York, the president of the General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, said on Monday.

News Agency of Nigeria report continues:

Lykketoft is to hold a series of informal dialogues and meetings with the eight potential candidates, according to a letter sent to the 193 UN Member States.

In the letter, Lykketoft informed the candidates that each person will be offered a two-hour meeting slot to present his or her candidature.

He said Member States would have the opportunity to ask questions and interact with each person.

The informal dialogues or meetings, he said, would be as open and transparent as possible, with considerable interest of the global public and civil society being duly kept in mind.

NAN reports that eight candidates have been officially presented as candidates of the post of the secretary-general.

They are Srgjan Kerim of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Vesna Pusic of Croatia; Igor Luksic of Montenegro; Danilo Turk of Slovenia; Irina Bokova of Bulgaria and Natalia Gherman of the Republic of Moldova.

Others are Antonio Guiterres, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Helen Clark, former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.

On Tuesday, Luksic, Bokova and Guiterres are expected to appear for the informal dialogue, where they will have an opening statement, then take questions from Member States.

On Wednesday, Turk, Pusic and Gherman will take their turns while on Thursday, Clark and Kerim will take their turns.

The UN Secretariat says more than 500 questions have already been submitted ranging from “what criteria would-be candidate use to make senior appointments, how will your measures end world poverty’’ to “how will you bring peace to the Middle East’’.

“Each of the current eight candidates will be formally introduced to the General Assembly and Observers.

“Following the introductory remarks, Member States will have either two or three minutes to ask questions on behalf of their countries or geographic grouping.’’

“Since the hearings are classified as `informal’ in the official UN records, there will be no speakers’ list.

“Member States will be recognized on a first-come, first-serve basis,’’ the UN Secretariat was quoted as saying.

The next secretary-general will assume the role in January 2017, following the end of the tenure of Ban Ki-Moon, who was elected on Oct. 13, 2006.

This is the first time the 193 Member States of the UN will be involved in the selection of the next secretary-general.

The selection process of the secretary-general had been secretive and involving only the permanent five members of the UN Security Council.

They are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

(NAN)