Ban a Lock for UN Secretary General

It has been confirmed that on October 2 (October 3 in local time) that Ban Ki-moon, the minister of Foreign Affairs, will succeed the next United Nations Secretary-General.

Ban obtained the absolute support from the members of the UN, including the five nations with a permanent seat on the Security Council in the fourth straw poll for the UN Secretary General post.

He was the only candidate who was approved by all of the permanent members of the Security Council among six candidates. In addition, Shashi Tharoor, who ranked second in the straw poll, resigned as candidate after the poll and revealed his support for Ban. Ban Ki-moon stands to be confirmed as the next leader of the UN if nothing special happens.

He will be the first candidate to be named UN Secretary General who hails from the divided country with many issues.

Ban came top in all of three straw polls and had backing of fourteen countries out of fifteen, including the five nations with a permanent seat on the Secretary Council. One nation abstained.

They used, for the first time on that day, ballot papers of different colors between the five nations with a permanent seat and ten non-permanent members of the Secretary Council so as to expose the supports of the permanent members of which Ban must have their backing to win the Secretary General.

After it was proved that Ban holds the dominant position, the UN Security Council decided to finish the process of straw polling and to perform the official election on October 9.

It appears that the Security Council will appoint Ban as the only candidate and recommend him to the UN General Assembly. The General Assembly has not objected to the candidate who had the support of the Security Council, so it is hopeful Ban will be selected as the next Secretary General later this month.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will step down at year’s end. And his successor will take office from January next year. It is expected that Ban will take the office of UN Secretary General for the next ten years because UN Secretary General is generally reappointed as long as he has no problems.

Ban met the press at the office of the ministry of Foreign Affairs on that day and said, “I am very honored and I do appreciate the trust and supports from the members of the Security Council. I feel the huge responsibility to take a position of keeping world peace and human rights with issues of UN reform.”

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