DAKAR - Former president of Senegal Macky Sall on Saturday withdrew from the seven person race to be the next UN secretary general, a day after an informal UN Security Council poll produced no clear favourite. In a statement released on social media, Sall said he had noted the result of the poll and “hoped to contribute now the emergence of a consensus candidate within the Security Council.” He added that “the results of different test votes indicate a choice favouring a candidate -- perhaps female --from the Latin America-Caribbean region.” A UN diplomat said Friday that all seven hopefuls had received a vote of “discourage,” effectively a veto, from a permanent UN Security Council member in anonymous informal polling. Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan -- who has been among the frontrunners in five previous polls -- received the most “encourage” votes, but also got five “discourage” votes, including two from permanent members of the 15-country council. U.S. media reports suggest Washington opposes all seven contenders. Among those considered by diplomats to be potential entrants are Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under the U.S.-backed “Board of Peace,” and the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs Lana Nusseibeh. Turkey’s Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu, secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has also had his name floated. The other candidates are Guyanese ex-foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, who heads the UN nuclear watchdog, Ecuador’s Ivonne A-Baki and Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Uganda’s Olara Otunnu. The outgoing secretary-general, Antonio Guterres of Portugal, ends his second five-year term on Dec. 31. Even if a candidate earns the required nine votes from the 15 in the Security Council, they must also avoid a veto by the five major powers, which are deeply divided.
