Costa Rica’s Grynspan extends lead in race to become next UN secretary general

Former Costa Rican vice president Rebeca Grynspan strengthened her lead in the race to become the next UN secretary general on Thursday, as diplomats try to break a months-long deadlock over UN leadership.

Ms Grynspan received 12 "encourage" votes, three "discourage" and no "no opinion" in the closed-door straw poll, according to diplomats. She secured 11 encourage votes in the previous round.

Latvia’s UN ambassador Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes, who holds the council’s rotating presidency this month, confirmed the ballot had taken place but declined to disclose the results.

The 15-member council is working to select a successor to Antonio Guterres, whose second five-year term ends in December, at a time when the UN faces mounting financial pressures, conflicts and questions over its ability to respond to global crises.

Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, placed second with nine "encourage" votes, four "discourage" and two "no opinion". Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett followed with 8-5-2.

The UAE's Lana Nusseibeh received 7-6-2, holding on to fourth place.

Turkey’s Feridun Sinirlioglu, whose late nomination has complicated an already crowded contest, received 3-8-4 in his first appearance in the vote.

Mr Sinirlioglu, nominated by Ankara on November 1, is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Friday before holding informal talks with Security Council members on November 9.

Moscow said it could consider candidates from outside Latin America to succeed Mr Guterres if none of the region’s nominees wins enough support in informal Security Council votes.

Kirill Logvinov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for International Organisations, told state news agency Tass that Moscow still believes it is the turn of Latin America and the Caribbean to nominate candidates, under an informal principle of geographical rotation.

“At the early stages of the race we promised to respect this tradition to our Latin American partners,” he said.

If no regional candidate won enough support, Russia would consider a wider field “that would meet our criteria and could command as much support from UN Security Council members as possible", he said.

Mr Logvinov said tension was rising and that consultations among the five permanent council members were becoming more frequent.

Thursday’s vote was conducted with undifferentiated ballots, meaning the results did not reveal how the council’s permanent members voted. Any of those countries — the US, Russia, China, France and Britain — can block a candidate during the formal selection process.

Ms Grynspan's three negative votes leave uncertainty over whether she can secure the backing of all five veto-wielding powers.

Diplomats may return to colour-coded ballots in the next round, a potentially decisive step that would reveal whether opposition to leading candidates is coming from permanent or elected council members.