GENEVA, 23 AUG (DNA) —       The 10th United Nations secretary-general will be chosen this year for a five-year term starting on January 1, 2027. A second informal poll took place on Friday and showed Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett was narrowly ahead, according to sources close to the process.

Here are the candidates so far running to take over from outgoing UN chief Antonio Guterres. Grossi, a 65-year-old career diplomat from Argentina, has been a high-profile director general of the UN nuclear watchdog for the last six years.

While the International Atomic Energy Agency has long policed Iran’s nuclear program, Grossi led negotiations aimed at salvaging parts of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers after US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of it in 2018. His critics say he has gone too far in trying to cut deals with Iran.

A multilingual father of eight, Grossi has raised both his and the IAEA’s profile with his shuttle diplomacy in international crises. Grynspan, 70, depicts herself as a reform-minded multilateralist who has battled gender barriers and has had a lifelong belief in the UN ‌and its commitment ‌to peace, development and human rights.

A former vice president of Costa Rica who heads the UN Conference on Trade and ‌Development, Grynspan ⁠said she stepped back ⁠from duties until September to avoid conflicts of interest during the campaign. If elected, Grynspan would be the first woman as secretary-general. She said she had to make trade-offs between family life and public service at UNCTAD and that being the first woman in charge there shaped her leadership.

Bachelet, 74, is a two-time president of Chile and a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who also served from 2010 to 2013 as executive director of women’s rights agency UN Women. Although supported by Brazil and Mexico, in March Chile withdrew its backing for Bachelet after a rightward shift in the country’s leadership.

The 64-year-old geologist was Senegal’s president for 12 years until 2024. Sall seeks to support developing ‌countries burdened by debt and has called for an overhaul of the Security Council as developing nations seek permanent seats on the most powerful UN body. “More than ever, ‌a reinvented multilateralism remains the best way to respond to the challenges of a world in full transformation,” he said on X.

Sall was nominated by Burundi. If chosen, he would be the third African secretary-general after Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan. Espinosa was foreign affairs minister and defense minister in Ecuador in the government of former President Rafael Correa. She was nominated by Antigua and Barbuda. Espinosa, 61, has also advised the UN and non-governmental organizations on biodiversity, and climate change and Indigenous peoples’ policies.

 A career diplomat and former politician, Rodrigues Birkett has served as Guyana’s permanent representative to the UN since 2020. She was the first woman and the highest-ranking Indigenous person to serve as Guyana’s foreign minister.  Otunnu, a diplomat and former UN under-secretary-general, was nominated by Uganda and has called for the restoration of the global body’s moral authority.

 At 75, he is the oldest of the current candidates for the role. Baki, an Ecuadorean diplomat born to Lebanese immigrant parents, was nominated by Tonga in August. She lived in Lebanon through the 1975 to 1990 civil war and her campaign draws on conflict prevention. — DNA