United Nations Secretary-General selection

United Nations Secretary-General selection is the process of selecting the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. To be selected as Secretary-General, a candidate must receive the votes of at least 9 members of the United Nations Security Council, with no vetoes from permanent members. The Secretary-General is then appointed by a majority vote of the United Nations General Assembly.

Although the process is informally called an election, the United Nations refers to it as the "procedure of selecting and appointing the next United Nations Secretary-General." Since the General Assembly has never refused to appoint the person recommended by the Security Council, it is the selection of the Security Council that determines the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Few formal rules govern the selection of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The only guiding text, Article 97 of the United Nations Charter, states "The Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council." As a result, the selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council. If a permanent member vetoes a candidate, it is not counted as a veto of a Security Council Resolution, as the Security Council is only making a recommendation and not passing a Resolution.

The Charter's minimal language has since been supplemented by other procedural rules and accepted practices. In 1946, the General Assembly adopted a resolution stating it was "desirable for the Security Council to proffer one candidate only for the consideration of the General Assembly, and for debate on the nomination in the General Assembly to be avoided."

Initially, the Security Council voted publicly, leading to many public confrontations between the superpowers. After the consultation room was built in 1978, the voting took place in secret, and the public vote became a ratification of a decision that had already been reached. To break the deadlocked selection of 1981, the Security Council began to take straw polls by secret ballot. The system of straw polls was set down on paper in 1996 as the Wisnumurti Guidelines.

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