Four candidates for UN secretary-general audition this week. That’s far fewer than in 2016
Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet – one of two women and one of three from Latin America – will be the first person to face ambassadors from the UN’s 193 member states in a three-hour question-and-answer session on Tuesday. Bachelet will be followed by UN nuclear chief Argentinian Rafael Mariano Grossi.
On Wednesday, UN trade chief Rebeca Grynspan will take the stage in the General Assembly hall, and finally, former President of Senegal Macky Sall will take the stage.
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13 candidates participated in the highly competitive race in 2016. What has changed?
For starters, the highly polarized and conflict-ridden world of 2026 is a far cry from the more peaceful global climate of 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected president.
Add to this the diminishing reputation of the United Nations. A decade ago, the world body was basking in the success of helping achieve the Paris climate accord to halt global warming and world leaders agreeing on 17 targets to spur global economic growth, protect the environment and close the widening gap between rich and poor countries. Today, divisions among world powers are so deep that the UN is unable to fulfill its primary role in maintaining global peace and security. The once-powerful Security Council has been prevented from taking action to stop the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, among other conflicts, leaving the UN on the edge of major global crises.
Richard Gowan, a U.N. observer and program director at the International Crisis Group, said the current geopolitical environment is affecting the race to replace Guterres, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.
He said 10 years ago many candidates entered the race knowing they had little chance of winning, but used that to raise their profiles.
“There was no real cost in losing,” Gowan said. (star)This time, potential candidates and the governments that sponsor them are much more cautious. “There’s a feeling that if a candidate missteps and angers Washington or Beijing, it could cause real diplomatic damage.”
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How did the election work in 2016?
In 2016, there was intense pressure to elect the first woman to lead the United Nations. 7 of the 13 candidates were women. But there was widespread agreement that Guterres performed best in what the UN called “interactive dialogue” with members of the General Assembly.
The UN Charter says little about the election of the secretary-general, other than that the all-member General Assembly must do so on the advice of the Security Council. This gives the five permanent members of the UN’s most powerful body – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France – a decision-making role and veto power over the election.
According to tradition, the general secretary works on a rotating basis depending on the region. Guterres, the former Portuguese prime minister and UN refugee chief representing Europe, replaced former South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, representing Asia. He followed Ghana’s Kofi Annan, who represented Africa.
Now it is Latin America’s turn, even though Eastern Europe has never had a secretary-general and lost one in 2016.
According to UN rules, candidates must be nominated by a member state, not themselves. There is no time limit for nominations, and more candidates can emerge, but in 2016 the Security Council began holding “missing polls” in late July that essentially function as a cut-and-win between the 13 candidates.
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How were the four candidates nominated?
In hearings this week, the four candidates are likely to be asked questions about their vision for the job, global hotspots and the future of the United Nations; but everything is going well.
74-year-old Bachelet, who became the UN’s high commissioner for human rights after serving two consecutive terms as president of Chile, was first nominated by Chile, Brazil and Mexico. However, after Chile’s far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast became president in March, the government withdrew its support for leftist Bachelet, who remained a candidate due to nominations from Brazil and Mexico.
Grossi, 65, a former Argentine diplomat who has been director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2019, was nominated by his home country.
Grynspan, 70, a former vice president of Costa Rica, has served as secretary-general of UNCTAD, the UN Trade and Development agency, since 2021 and was also nominated by his country.
Sall, 64, was nominated by Burundi, but his country, Senegal, told the African Union it did not support him. Neither did the divided regional organization of 55 countries.
A fifth candidate, Argentinian diplomat Virginia Gamba, former UN representative on children in armed conflict, was nominated by the Maldives, but the Indian Ocean nation withdrew her candidacy in late March without giving any reason.
With only two female candidates, pressure continues for the secretary general to be a woman; This includes Guterres, who is trying to achieve gender equality in his administration. Britain and France have also said they want to see a woman at the helm.
Global advocacy group 1 for 8 Billion and GWL Voices, an organization of nearly 80 global female leaders, are campaigning for a woman. GWL’s president and co-founder, former Argentine foreign minister and senior UN official Susana Malcorra, was a candidate for secretary-general in 2016.
But Bachelet already faces US opposition
In a March 25 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 28 Republican Senate and House members asked the United States to veto Bachelet, calling her “a pro-abortion bigot intent on using political authority to override state sovereignty in pursuit of extreme agendas.”
At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was asked about Bachelet’s fitness for office by Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, one of the letter’s signatories. Waltz said he was not in a position to say whether the United States would support or oppose him, but added, “I share your concerns.”
Gowan said a woman’s odds of being elected appeared to change sharply when Trump returned to the White House.
“There was a feeling before this that a woman should win this time, but now many diplomats assume that Washington will insist on a male secretary-general in principle,” he said. “I’m not sure that’s necessarily true.”
