Antonio Guterres elected as UN Secretary-General
The United Nations Security General Assembly has unanimously elected the Portuguese former UNHCR head António Guterres, who began his social involvement as a leader of the Catholic youth movement, Juventude Universitária Católica (JUC) in 1971.
Oct 14, 2016
NEW YORK: The United Nations Security General Assembly has unanimously elected the Portuguese former UNHCR head António Guterres (pic), who began his social involvement as a leader of the Catholic youth movement, Juventude Universitária Católica (JUC) in 1971.
Described as a committed Catholic, Guterres is the current president of the Socialist International as well as a former Prime Minister of Portugal.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, made the announcement to reporters surrounded by the 14 other council ambassadors after they held a sixth informal poll of the 10 candidates behind closed doors.
Churkin announced that the council held a formal vote on Oct 6 morning (New York time) to recommend Guterres to the 193-member General Assembly, which must approve a successor to Ban Ki-moon, whose second fiveyear term ends on December 31.
East European nations, including Russia, argued that they have never had a secretary-general and it was their turn.
But Guterres, who served as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees until December last year, topped all six polls despite being from Western Europe.
For the first time this year, the General Assembly’s members held a two-hour question-andanswer sessions with all 13 candidates who entered the race, and in the eyes of many diplomats, Guterres performed best.
In the fifth “straw” poll, however, he still received two “discourage” votes and there was a lot of speculation about whether Russia, which is a member of the East European group, would vote for him. The sixth informal poll on Oct 5 morning was the first to use coloured ballots to distinguish the votes of the five veto-wielding Security Council members: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.
Diplomats said that Guterres received 13 “encourage” votes, no “discourage” votes, and two “no opinion.”
In the past, Guterres was accused of being a member of Opus Dei. However, the organisation has denied that he was ever a member. --Global Pulse Magazine
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