UNITED NATIONS — The race for the next United Nations secretary general has been marked by two things: A clamor for a woman to take the helm after 70 years of male leadership, and a push for more sunlight into the mysterious process by which the Security Council makes its selection.
On Thursday, two things became clear for the six men and six women vying for the post.
First, two men — António Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal, and Danilo Turk, the former president of Slovenia — got the most votes in a secret Security Council straw poll, with a woman, Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian diplomat and the head of the United Nations cultural agency, Unesco, close on their heels.
Second, despite all the agitation for transparency, secrecy continued to prevail in the Council chambers. Diplomats emerged from the nearly two-hour voting session with lips sealed about whom they had given a thumb’s up or thumb’s down. Even the candidates, who were told the results, were instructed not to reveal them. It was like the diplomatic version of the conclave of cardinals to select a pope.
No matter. Within a couple of hours, news trickled out, which led the General Assembly president, Mogens Lykketoft, a Danish diplomat, to wonder aloud why the Council did not just make the results of the process public.
“They act as if it’s secret,” said Mr. Lykketoft, a champion of greater transparency who presided over a two-hour question-and-answer session for each candidate before the 193-member General Assembly. “We all know the figures from the media. ”
By the close of business Thursday his office had not received official results, so Mr. Lykketoft took to Twitter to urge the Council to share them. The 1 for 7 Billion campaign, a civil society coalition agitating for an open process for the last 18 months, echoed the call, pressing the Council to “a continued commitment to a transparent process.”
This year, for the first time in the 70-year history of the United Nations, all 12 candidates have had to explain, publicly, their background and how they propose to repair a world in tatters.
The race could not come at a more critical time, with eroding public confidence in institutions, not least the United Nations. Several rounds of straw polls are expected in the coming weeks, with a final decision in October at the earliest. The new secretary general will succeed Ban Ki-moon when his term expires at the end of 2016.
The choice, ultimately, is likely to be made by the United States and Russia, each of which can veto any candidate. The gulf between the two countries is arguably bigger than in many years, which could make it harder for them to agree on a consensus candidate. At the same time, many diplomats say, the more public questioning of candidates makes it harder for Washington and Moscow to make a deal on someone who performed poorly. As the British ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, put it Thursday, they “increase the chances of getting a stronger secretary general at the end of this.”
Russia has said it believes that it is time for someone for Eastern Europe to have the job. Regional rotations have become customary, though nothing in the United Nations Charter stipulates it. The United States has said only that it would like to see a strong secretary general, and it is widely understood that it would prefer someone who will not buck its national interests. “We’re looking for somebody with great leadership skills, great management skills, someone who has a commitment to fairness and accountability and who stays true to the founding principles of the United Nations,” Samantha Power, the United States ambassador, said before heading into the Council chambers to cast her vote.
Thursday’s straw poll made no distinction between how the Council’s five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States — voted, versus the 10 other members. That distinction is important because each of those five has veto power over candidates.
The spread among the candidates was large, with Mr. Guterres, a physicist by training and a veteran politician, receiving 12 positive votes out of the possible 15. Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat who headed the United Nations climate negotiations, came in last with only two positive votes, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity about the closed-door balloting. Mr. Turk received nearly as many positive votes, but also two negative votes.
In the next level of front-runners were Ms. Bokova and two former foreign ministers, Vuk Jeremic of Serbia and Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia.
Below them, several candidates received a mix of positive and negative votes. They included Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand and the chief of the United Nations Development Program, and Susana Malcorra, the foreign minister of Argentina who has cast herself as a knowledgeable insider, having served until recently as Mr. Ban’s chief of staff.
Among those who did not fare well were the least-known candidates — Natalia Gherman of Moldova, Vesna Pusic of Croatia, and Igor Luksic of Montenegro.
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