The United Nations Security Council members will today, October 30, 2026, hold a seventh straw poll to determine, per Article 97 of the UN Charter, who will be the next Secretary-General of the UN.
The latest straw poll will have a new candidate added after the United Arab Emirates nominated Lana Zaki Nusseibeh for the UN Secretary-General post 10 days after Macky Sall (Senegal) withdrew his candidacy. The other candidates still in the race include Olara Otunnu (Uganda), Ivonne A-Baki (Ecuador), María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador), Rafael Mariano Grossi (Argentina), Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana) and Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis (Costa Rica).
Straw polls are informal ballots used to assess the viability of candidates before the Council makes its formal recommendation through a resolution adopted during a private meeting. Latvia and the UK were appointed as tellers. For Otunu, the only remaining candidate from Africa, today’s straw poll provides a clear direction of where his campaign is headed.
Otunnu, who has so far run his campaign on the need to reform the world body, reiterated his stance on Thursday, asking-rhetorically-what will become of the UN without the much-needed reforms.
‘Will the United Nations matter in the lives of ordinary people in the years to come? This question is at the heart of the search for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN). It is also at the centre of my decision to offer to serve,’ he said, adding, ‘I believe that the UN can rise to the moment, but only if we are willing to change how it works.’
The former UN Under-Secretary-General said a rigorous reform agenda requires the world to refocus on the fundamentals of the UN Charter, going back to basics in the three core mandates (pillars) enunciated in the Charter: Peace and Security, Human Rights, and Sustainable Development.
‘The purpose of reform must be to regenerate greater legitimacy and effectiveness, in order to yield tangible impact on the ground. As Secretary-General, refocusing, restructuring and reorganising the UN system would be a commanding priority of my mandate. This begins by consolidating, expanding and institutionalising the efforts already begun under the UN reform programme, dubbed ‘UN80′. We cannot afford to lose momentum or falter in our resolve,’ he said.
Reform agenda
He said while the first phase of reform has already generated some savings through reductions in posts, the relocation of staff and the consolidation of administrative functions. Such a status quo should be seen as the beginning of a more fundamental institutional transformation in which reform becomes part of the cultural DNA of the UN and a continuous process of assessing priorities, challenging entrenched practices and delivering measurable impact.
‘From day one, I would use my prerogative as Secretary-General to laser-focus on eliminating duplication and redundancy, strengthening coherence and accountability, and aligning priorities with commensurate resources. Reform must produce an institution that is leaner, more focused, and more closely connected to the people it serves,’ he said.
While Otunnu has pledged broader reforms, his core focus has been on bringing UN closure to the people, through relocation of substantive political, humanitarian and development posts to the regional level to advance sustainable development. This, he said, will deepen cost savings and bring expertise geographically closer to the member States and the communities the UN serves.
‘Political analysis should be closer to political realities. Humanitarian expertise should be better connected to the communities facing crises. We must do much more to connect the global UN to the local level, thus increasing the impact of the UN on the lives of ordinary people,’ he said.
‘The UN cannot credibly claim to represent the international community if its own composition fails to reflect that community. A more efficient UN must also be more representative and inclusive. As Secretary-General, I would prioritise geographic diversity, gender parity and multilingualism as crucial aspects of my reform agenda. This is integral to the legitimacy and effectiveness of the UN,’ he added.
Otunnu, who also previously served as the first UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said the reform agenda must refocus the UN on its core Charter mandate of maintaining international peace and security and promoting conflict resolution, which remain an important component of the global peace and security agenda and the UN’s efforts to end conflicts.
‘It is essential that these operations are more focused, realistic and achievable in their mandates; that they are results-oriented, clearly time-bound and accountable to Member States; that transition arrangements are planned and designed from the beginning to avoid open-ended, never-ending UN operations; that critical concerns about burden-sharing in financing and troop contributions are addressed; that the sovereignty of affected Member States is respected; and that there is better consultation with national stakeholders, including civil society and local communities who are on the frontlines of conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding,’ he said.
‘As Secretary-General, I would lead the effort to overhaul peacekeeping and bring UN Peace Operations back to these fundamentals,’ he added.
Global wars
A number of permanent members of the UN Security Council are currently engaged in brutal wars, including Russia, which invaded its neighbour Ukraine in 2022, the US that launched blistering attacks against Venezuela and together with Israel attacked Iran.
Otunnu said while the UN has a mandate to maintain peace and security, tragically, major wars continue to ravage communities around the world.
‘Ending these deadly conflicts would constitute an immediate and absolute priority for me. I know that the ultimate decisions rest with the protagonists and the major powers. But as Secretary-General, I would fully and impartially engage in mediation efforts, listening patiently to all parties, probing opportunities to be helpful, and coming up with innovative ideas to break deadlocks,’ he said.
‘Reforming the UN to be ‘fit for purpose’ also entails rebuilding consensus on Human Rights. As Secretary-General, I would refocus on fulfilling the vision, spirit and promise of the UN Charter for ‘fundamental human rights and the dignity and worth of the human person’. For a human rights-centered approach to be credible and enjoy broad legitimacy, we must guard against the politicisation or instrumentalisation of human rights, perceived or otherwise. As Secretary-General, I would invoke the UN Charter and its principles in a completely impartial and non-selective manner,’ he added.
Back to undifferentiated voting
Internal sources say while the sixth straw poll featured coloured ballots to distinguish between the votes cast by the five permanent members (P5) and the 10 elected members (E10), it appears that undifferentiated ballots will be used in today’s straw poll. Sources say the issue of moving back to undifferentiated ballots was discussed on Thursday at an informal meeting among Council members after the conclusion of the Council’s dialogue with Nusseibeh.
While some members, including Bahrain, Russia, and the US, wanted the straw poll to again feature coloured ballot papers, sources say the majority of members preferred going back to undifferentiated ballots. They cited several reasons in support of this approach.
‘Colombia and Panama apparently observed that the Council has not had the opportunity to test the new candidate’s strength to the same extent as it did with longer-standing candidates. Among other issues, there appeared to be concern that admitting the new candidate directly at the colour-coded stage might appear as non-transparent and could potentially give her an unfair advantage over the other candidates, particularly the emerging frontrunners, all of whom are from Latin American countries and all of whom have participated in several rounds of straw polls,’ sources said.
Although some permanent members stressed the need to accelerate the Council’s decision-making-including through colour-coded ballots, which may induce lower-scoring candidates to withdraw-they appear to have eventually agreed to return to undifferentiated voting for today’s straw poll.
A close call?
The first colour-coded poll did not identify a clear favourite among the permanent members. All candidates emerged with ‘discouraged’ ballots from P5 members, including Grynspan, Rodrigues-Birkett, and Grossi, who received two each. Grynspan and Rodrigues-Birkett each received three ‘encouraged’ votes from the P5, while Grossi received two.
Among the three leading candidates, Grossi is the only one who recorded a ‘no opinion expressed’ vote from a P5 member. Both Grynspan and Grossi received six ‘encouraged’ votes from the E10, while Rodrigues Birkett received five.
Rodrigues-Birkett recorded the strongest overall improvement compared with the fifth straw poll, gaining three ‘encouraged’ votes and reducing her ‘discouraged’ votes by the same amount. Grynspan and Grossi also improved their overall scores. Grynspan garnered one less ‘discouraged’ vote, while Grossi acquired two additional ‘encouraged’ ballots and shed one ‘discouraged’ vote. Otunnu’s result also showed some improvement, but his ten ‘discouraged’ ballots remain a significant obstacle.
‘Discouraged’ votes either reduced or stayed the same, while ‘encouraged’ ballots either increased or stayed the same across all candidates, and the overall number of ‘discouraged’ votes decreased from 67 in the fifth straw poll to 60 in the sixth. At the same time, no candidate secured a level of support that would clearly indicate that a consensus is emerging within the Council.