Portugal’s former prime minister Antonio Guterres was poised to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations following a decisive straw poll by the Security Council on Wednesday.
Guterres, who served as prime minister from 1995 to 2002 and was the UN’s refugee chief for 10 years, won backing from 12 of the 15 council members — most importantly from four of the five veto-holding powers.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin emerged from the council chamber along with the 14 other ambassadors to declare that Guterres was the “clear favorite” to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the world’s diplomat-in-chief.