UNITED NATIONS - The South Korean and Indian candidates for the next U.N. secretary-general got a boost Monday when most members of the Security Council encouraged them to stay in the race.
The other two candidates from Sri Lanka and Thailand have not formally announced their desire to succeed Secretary-General Kofi Annan' name and did not do as well in an informal poll of the 15 Security Council nations. The results were obtained by The Associated Press.
The secret poll only gives the faintest indication of how the two top vote-getters — South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and India's Shashi Tharoor, U.N. undersecretary-general or public affairs — might fare in formal elections later this year.
Candidates can come forward until the last minute, and the final vote is not expected until the fall. A "no" vote from one of the five veto-wielding permanent Security Council members can sink a candidacy.
In Tuesday's informal poll, the 15 council nations checked one of three boxes for each candidate : "Encourage," "discourage," and "no opinion."No candidate got 15 encouraging votes, meaning that any of the five permanent council members could have voted against the two best performers.
Ban did the best, with 12 council nations encouraging him to run, one discouraging him and two giving no opinion.
Tharoor was next, with 10 votes of encouragement, two of discouragement and three giving no opinion."Considering I've entered the race just a month ago and am the only candidate who has not visited all 15 capitals, I'm gratified to have received such a broad base of support in the Council," Tharoor said in an e-mail.
Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai got seven votes of encouragement, three against, and five of no opinion.The worst performer was former U.N. disarmament chief Jayantha Dhanapala, who only got five votes of encouragement. Six council nations discouraged him and four expressed no opinion.
Most diplomats generally agree that the next secretary-general should come from Asia, part of a tradition to rotate the job between regions. The U.N. chief can serve two five-year terms.
Response has been tepid so far for the four announced candidates. Some diplomats say the person who will become the eighth secretary-general in the United Nations' name 60-year history has likely not emerged yet.
Other possible candidates include Kemal Dervis, the Turkish chief of the U.N. Development Program; Jordan's Prince Zeid al-Hussein, who is his country's U.N. ambassador; and Goh Chok Tong, former prime minister of Singapore.
In the past, those who ultimately became secretary-general emerged late in the process or hardly even campaigned for the job. That is partly because candidates become the object of intense diplomatic haggling between the five permanent members of the council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S.
There was no immediate announcement that any candidate had dropped out.
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