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Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has withdrawn her candidacy for the United Nations secretary‑general, ending her bid to become the first woman to lead the world body.
Bachelet, 74, announced the decision in a video posted to Instagram on Saturday, stating that she would not continue her campaign for the position.
The withdrawal follows the release of the third informal straw poll by the UN Security Council, in which Bachelet received only one “encourage” vote, 11 “discourage” votes and three “no opinion” votes. This contrasts with six encouraging votes in July and two in August.
Other candidates still in the running include Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, who led the poll with nine encouraging votes, Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues‑Birkett with eight, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, former Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Ecuadorian diplomat María Fernanda Espinosa.
To be recommended by the Security Council, a candidate must secure at least nine votes in favour from its 15 members and avoid a veto from any of the five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States—before a final vote in the General Assembly.
Bachelet was nominated by Chile in February with support from Brazil and Mexico. Only one Latin American, Peru’s Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, has previously held the UN’s top job, and an unofficial regional rotation had positioned Latin America for this cycle.
Antonio Guterres’s term as secretary‑general ends on 31 December. He has warned that the UN faces “imminent financial collapse,” with $1.57 billion in unpaid dues projected by the end of 2025, and that geopolitical divisions among major powers have left the organization deadlocked on crises such as Gaza and Ukraine.
World leaders will convene in New York next week for the General Assembly’s annual high‑level session, opening Tuesday under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation.”
Article source: www.aljazeera.com | Image credit: www.aljazeera.com
