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Race for UN Secretary General post turns geopolitical
Africa Confidential
African governments are showing extraordinary interest in the ‘election’ of the next UN Secretary-General. It is an election in inverted commas as five member states – China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States as permanent members of the UN Security Council – have the power of veto.
Senegal’s ex-President Macky Sall has left the race already and Uganda’s Olara Otunnu is well down the field. But African delegations warn that sharp cuts are exacerbating the UN’s diminishing role on conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, climate, humanitarian action and development finance.
Rebeca Grynspan, ex-Vice-President of Costa Rica who until recently headed UNCTAD, topped the latest straw poll. She was followed by Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, director general of the Atomic Energy Agency, and Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, former foreign minister of Guyana. Running fourth was United Arab Emirates Deputy Foreign Minister Lana Nusseibeh. The Africa policy of the UAE, accused by independent media and UN reports of arming the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, has made Nusseibeh’s candidacy polarising. That she has been one of the UAE’s strongest defenders on the issue has turbo-charged the debate. The controversy has prompted Turkey to nominate Feridu Sinirlioglu, who heads the OSCE, turning the election into a geopolitical fight with the UAE.
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