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Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has withdrawn her candidacy to become the next United Nations secretary-general, ending her bid to become the first woman to lead the world body.
Bachelet, 74, announced her decision on Saturday in a video posted on Instagram, saying she had decided not to continue her campaign.
She said she did not regret taking on the challenge, although she acknowledged that “the time was not right” for the type of candidacy she sought to represent.
Her withdrawal came after the UN Security Council held its third informal straw poll on Friday. Bachelet received one “encourage” vote, 11 “discourage” votes and three “no opinion” votes, compared with six encouraging votes in July and two in August.
Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, head of the UN Trade and Development body, led the latest poll with nine “encourage” votes, followed by Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett with eight.
Other candidates remaining in the race include International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, former Senegalese President Macky Sall and Ecuadorian diplomat Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
A candidate must secure at least nine votes in the 15-member Security Council and avoid a veto from any of its five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — to be recommended to the General Assembly.
Chile nominated Bachelet in February, with support from Brazil and Mexico. Only one Latin American, Peru’s Javier Perez de Cuellar, has previously served as UN secretary-general.
The next secretary-general will succeed Antonio Guterres, whose term ends on December 31, and will inherit an organisation facing multiple global crises and financial pressures.
Guterres warned member states earlier this year that the UN faced “imminent financial collapse”. By the end of 2025, unpaid member-state dues had reached $1.57 billion, while only a fraction of countries had fully met their financial obligations.
World leaders are due to gather in New York next week for the UN General Assembly’s annual high-level session, which opens Tuesday under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation”.
Source: Al Jazeera
