Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák (source: TASR)
Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák was not selected, although some voices pointed to the fact that eastern Europe has not yet been represented by a secretary general. No woman will get this position either, despite earlier calls for such a motion.
According to the published information, Guterres got votes in favour, but no veto; and one vote ”without opinion” from a permanent Security Council member, and one from a non-permanent member, the SITA newswire wrote on October 5.
Formal voting will take place the next day, according to Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin.
The October 5 vote was the first to take place where permanent UN SC members (US, UK, France, Russia, China) could have applied the right to veto. In the previous five, indicative rounds, 15 UN SC states expressed views by “support, “no support”, “no opinion”. In them, Lajčák placed once in the middle of the chart of candidates, once second to last, two times second and in the last vote, third.
The first reactions of analysts point to the fact that the eastern-European group of countries have not yet had a candidate accepted as UN secretary general and this creates a dangerous precedence for the future, SITA wrote.
