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Latvian President Ends Her Candidacy for UN Secretary-General

On Thursday evening, October 5 in Riga, Latvia, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia announced that, following consultations with leaders of Estonia and Lithuania, she was ending her candidacy to be the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. In a statement posted on her web site www.president.lv Mrs. Vike-Freiberga thanked the all governments that supported her candidature. Remarking on the fact that neither a woman nor an East-European has ever headed the United Nations she expressed "her firm belief that other qualified candidates representing half of humanity and one of the most dynamic regions of the world will eventually succeed in being elected to this august post." Dr Vike-Freiberga said she appreciated the positive response her candidacy generated among academia, non-governmental organizations and the media. She also vowed "extend her fullest support and cooperation to the next Secretary General". She concluded with the observation "It is of utmost importance to muster the support of all UN member states for the ambitious UN reforms that are absolutely necessary for the adaptation of this global body to the challenges of the 21^st century." 

Two Candidates Remain in UN Secretary-General Race (Corrected Oct. 6)

On Thursday, October 5, Thailand's new interim prime-minister announced that Surakiart Sathirathai, Thailand's candidate for the office of UN Secretary-General, was ending his quest for the post. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont was quoted as saying "It is like when we play football. When we go to the final round and know that we are going to lose, we have to accept it." Mr. Surakiart had been the candidate of the Association for South-East Asian Nations or "ASEAN". The announcement follows the withdrawal on Wednesday of the Jordanian candidate Prince Zeid al-Hussein, currently his nation's ambassador to the United Nations in New York, and of the Afghan candidate Ashraf Ghani, his country's former finance minister..

Only two nominees are still in the running, though it is widely expected that South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon will win the nod of the UN Security Council in the formal vote scheduled for Monday October 9. Mr. Ban was the only candidate to have no negative votes from the Council's permanent members in the informal "straw-poll" taken October 2nd. In addition to Mr. Ban, Latvia's president, Vaira Vika-Freiberga is still vying for the UN's top job. Whichever candidate is approved by the Security Council will then be voted on by the 192 member General Assembly, where all UN members are represented.

In the now unlikely event that Dr. Vike-Freiberga of Latvia is elected, she would be the first woman and the first East-European ever to serve at the helm of Turtle Bay.

Fourth Straw-Poll Places No Obstacles to Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea.

On Monday, October 2, the Security Council held its fourth and possibly final informal vote on the candidates vying to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary-General of the United Nations. As in all the previous straw-polls South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon came in first, but in this vote he was the only candidate not to draw negative votes from any of the five permanent members of the Council. Unlike previous tallies the permanent members of the Council, who have the power to eventually block any candidacy, cast their ballots on blue paper while the non-permanent members cast theirs on white paper.

Jayanatha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, who came in last in Friday's poll, had withdrawn from the race, leaving only 6 candidates in the running. The results of Monday's voting was as follows (pm = votes of permanent members):

Despite his second place finish, Sashi Tharoor of India conceded the race to Mr. Ki-Moon and ended his quest for the post. US Ambassador John Bolton was reported to say that the Security Council will move to hold a formal vote on Monday morning October 9. It is possible, but unlikely, that other candidates may still be nominated before then. If as expected Mr. Ki-Moon wins this formal vote his name will be submitted to the 192 member General Assembly for approval.

Latvia's president, Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga came in third, as she had in Friday's vote, but with the number of positive votes in her favor dropping from 7 to 5. Though the balloting is secret in the sense that it is not known how each country voted it is widely assumed that the two negative votes cast against Mrs. Vike-Freiberga by permanent members of the Council came from Russia and China. A statement posted Tuesday, Oct. 3 on her web site www.president.lv said she took a "realistic view" of the results of the fourth straw-poll. The President also stated she felt satisfied by the support her candidacy had received and that it had shown that the Secretary-General should be chosen in a more open, transparent and democratic process based on the candidates' qualifications and with less attention to regional rotation. She went on to say she felt her candidacy had been successful in promoting wider discussion about how the UN Secretary-General is selected and about the need to continue UN reforms.

The web sites of a number of NGO's have closely followed the selection process, among them www.unsg.org , www.centerforunreform.org and www.unwatch.org . Some commentators on these NGO sites and the international media have noted an striking correlation in the amount of foreign aid South Korea has been sending to current members of the Security Council since Mr. Ki-Moon announced his candidacy for the UN post in February. Among them the The Times of London http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2380336_1,00.html .

Latvian President Places Third in Latest Security Council "Straw-Poll" in Race for UN Secretary-General.

On Thursday evening, September 28, Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the president of Latvia, took third place in the latest of a series of informal votes among Security Council members that is part of the process in choosing the next UN Secretary-General. An article on UN related web log , www.unsg.org noted that "it was Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga  that achieved a surprise victory, pushing past the other challengers to secure an impressive if not strong third place standing. On top of being the only non-Asian in the race, this was an outstanding showing for a candidate that entered the race less than two weeks ago." 

As in the previous two "straw polls" the fifteen members of the Security Council each submitted its opinion of each candidate without distinguishing between the five permanent or the ten rotating members of the council. Thus it is not yet known if any of the negative or "discourage" votes received by each candidate came from the Council members with veto power to block any nominee.

The results of the poll, ordered by each candidate's level of support, are as follows:

Though only Mr. Ban Ki-Moon received more than the required nine votes needed to win, he does not have the election wrapped up. It is possible that his one "discourage" came from a permanent member, which would block any chance of his election.

There is no way to tell how individual countries voted, but one can speculate that six of the seven positive votes for Mrs. Vike-Freiberga may have come from the European  nations: France, United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece, Slovakia, plus the United States. Four of the six negative votes may have come from countries in the "Asian" group: China, Japan, and Qatar, plus the Russian Federation. Again, it must be emphasized that this is pure conjecture. In any case the level of support for any candidate can vary widely from poll to poll as shown in an article on www.unwatch.org where the results of all the Security Council straw-polls are compiled.

President Vike-Freiberga expressed her gratitude "for the received support and thanks all supporters of her candidacy both from the Eastern European region and beyond" in a statement posted on her web site www.president.lv .

The next informal vote is scheduled for Monday, October 2. In this poll the permanent Security-Council members will be given ballots of a different color than non-permanent members so each candidate will know if his or her path to the Secretary-General's post may be blocked by a veto.

Also on Thursday, September 28, The New York Times published on its Op-Ed page the replies to certain questions asking each of the seven candidates why they were seeking the job of UN Secretary-General. Five of the candidates, including Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, responded. This Op-Ed piece may be found at www.nytimes.com .

Other Baltic organization web sites with news and information about the process of choosing the next UN Secretary-General are: www.jbanc.org , www.alausa.org , and www.latviansonline.com 

Next Security Council "Straw Poll" to Take Place September 28.

On Wednesday, September 20, the nomination of Ashraf Ghani for UN Secretary-General was announced. There are now a total of seven candidates viewing for the title of the world's top diplomat.
These are:

• Mrs.Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Latvia;

• Mr. Ahraf Ghani, former finance minister of Afghanistan;

• Mr. Ban Ki-moon, foreign minister of South Korea;

• Mr. Shashi Tharoor of India, the UN under secretary-general for communications and information;

• Mr. Surakiart Sathirathai, deputy prime minister of Thailand;

• Prince Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, ambassador of Jordan to the UN;

• and Mr. Jayanatha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, former UN under secretary-general for disarmament.

The 15 member UN Security Council has the task of choosing one candidate who is then must be approved by a majority of the 192 UN member countries. In order to gauge how much support each candidate has within the Council, informal votes or "straw polls" are conducted. Prior to the nominations of Mrs. Vike-Freiberga and Mr. Ghani, two such polls had taken place, the first on July 24 and another on September 14. Prince al-Hussein entered the race after the first poll. In these polls Council members checked one of three boxes next to each declared candidate's name to indicate an opinion of "encourage", "discourage" or "no opinion". In the last two polls Mr. Ki-moon came in first followed closely by Mr. Tharoor. They were followed by Mr. Sathirathai, Prince al-Hussein and lastly by Mr. Dhanapala. The recent military coup in Thailand has complicated Mr. Sathirathai's candidacy.

The first two votes by secret ballot did not make any distinction between the votes of five permanent veto-wielding Security-Council members and those of the ten non-permanent members who serve two-year terms. It is expected that in the next vote scheduled for September 28 the permanent members: China; France; the Russian Federation; the United Kingdom; and the United States, will cast their votes with ballots of a different color than the rotating members, so as to be able to tell if a permanent member intends to veto the candidacy of any nominee. The non-permanent members now serving in the Security Council are: Argentina, Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

On Tuesday, September 19, President Vike-Freiberga gave an address before the 61st session of the United Nations General Assembly. The full text of her address is also available on www.president.lv .

President of Latvia, Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga Nominated to Be the Next Secretary-General of the United Nations.

On Friday, September 15, 2006 the UN delegations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in New York submitted the nomination of Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, currently the president of Latvia, to be the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. The nomination was submitted to Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece who is currently serving as president of the UN Security Council. Thus President Vike-Freiberga becomes the sixth person but the first woman formally nominated for the post.

In a statement issued the same day, Dr. Vike-Freiberga noted that "The time has come for a woman to be taken seriously as a candidate for this prestigious position." She went on to say that no Secretary-General has come from the Eastern European group. regarding her qualifications Dr. Vike-Freiberga cited her active participation in various UN initiatives since her election as President of Latvia in 1999. The current Secretary-General, Kofi Annan appointed her Special Envoy on UN Reform in 2005. Dr. Vike-Freiberga emphasized to need to restore trust in the UN and make it capable of resolving the challenges of poverty, inequality, insecurity and violence. She also stressed the importance of dialogue between civilizations. The full text of the President's statement is available at the web site of the Chancery of the President of Latvia www.president.lv .

The next hurdle to be overcome by the candidates to succeed Kofi Annan as the next Secretary-General is an informal and secret "straw poll" among the 15 members of the Security Council to be held September 28. In the most recent straw poll, Ban Ki-Moon, Foreign Minister of South Korea, had a significant but not overwhelming lead. The Security Council has 5 permanent members: China; France; the Russian Federation; the United Kingdom; and the United States, and 10 non-permanent members elected for overlapping 2-year terms. Currently the ten rotating members are: Argentina, Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia, and the United Republic of Tanzania. The veto power held by the permanent members of the Security Council has not been applied to the earlier straw polls but can ultimately be used to block eventual Security Council approval of any nominee. After the Security Council gives its approval, the candidate must gain a majority of votes in the General Assembly, where all 192 UN members have one vote.

Express Your Support for Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga as the Next UN Secretary-General

Supporters of the idea that a woman should lead the United Nations have established a web site based in France where individuals can sign a petition: www.chooseawomanforun.eu .

Why Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, the president of Latvia, should be the next Secretary-General of the United Nations - CLICK HERE

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