New Hearings for UN Secretary-General Candidates

The slow-motion search for the next head of the United Nations is moving into a new phase. General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft announced today that he had scheduled the next so-called "informal dialogues" with candidates on 7 June. However, he did not say who would be appearing. 

According to scuttlebutt the new candidates will be Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, Susanna Malcorra of Argentina and former UN Chef de Cabinet Alicia Barcena of Mexico.

Meanwhile, AP UN correspondent Edith Lederer reported that two of the declared candidates, Croatia's Vesna Pusic and Moldova's Natalia Gherman had asked to meet with the Security Council. Pusic had asked for the meeting to hear the "concerns and questions" of council members and have its 15 members evaluate her candidacy.

The selection schedule for the next head of the UN calls for a decision on a new Secretary-General by mid-year, allowing a significant period of transition.

For more information on the declared candidates and the selection process check out www.undiplomatictimes.com

  

Picking a New UN Head

So far, there are four women and five men bidding to be the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Each has provided biographical details and a vision statement (see here for links to all)

Three of them -- Igor Luksic of Montenegro, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria and Antonio Gueterres of Spain -- engaged in "informal dialogue" with an attentive audience in the Trusteeship Council on Tuesday, 12 April. (Here for video and summaries of vision statements)

On 13 April, Danilo Turk of Slovenia,  Vesna Pusic of Croatia and Natalia Gherman of Moldova will take the stage, followed on the 14th by Vuk Jeremic of Serbia, Helen Clark of New Zealand and Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic).

There is a general expectation that other candidates will emerge, and cynical opinion is that the Permanent Members of the Security Council will eventually do the real choosing, However, General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft made a powerful point: if there is solid support for any one candidate in the General Assembly, the Permanent Members are unlikely to contest it.

A running commentary at the www.undiplomatictimes.com site will follow the process to its completion.