Remarks by Ambassador John R. Bolton, U.S. Representative to the United Nations,
on the selection of the next Secretary-General, the IIIC report on the
“Brammertz report,” and other matters, at the Security Council stakeout,
September 29, 2006, as per USUN release #45 (2006).

Ambassador Bolton: Good morning. I’m sure many of you are aware, Ambassador
Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, through his national mission, informed the
president of the Security Council this morning that he was withdrawing his
candidacy for secretary-general. I’ve known Ambassador Dhanapala for a number
of years, since he was Sri Lankan ambassador in Washington. I think he’s a fine
man, a fine professional. We appreciate that he stood as a candidate for
secretary-general. And just want to say we have the highest respect for him,
and wish him well in his future endeavors.
I would not be surprised if there are not other changes in the remaining
universe of candidates, that perhaps some others might now withdraw; perhaps
depending on how that goes, some others might come in. And I think what this
reflects is that as we draw toward the first straw poll using differentiated
ballots on Monday, that the pace of the selection process is quickening, and
that we are moving into a dispositive phase. Obviously, a lot depends on the
decisions that existing or potential candidates might make, and a lot will
depend on how the vote goes on Monday. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that
we are more and more rapidly approaching, from the Security Council’s point of
view, the critical decision.

Reporter: Ambassador, are you glad to hear that there are likely to be
new candidates coming into the race? Is that a good thing?
Ambassador Bolton: It’s been our position all along we want the broadest
possible pool of candidates to choose from on a worldwide basis. And we’ve said
that ever since the U.S. had the presidency of the Security Council in February.
And in that sense, of course we welcome additional candidates. But we’ve also
said, roughly since then, we want to have this decision made in a fashion that
will give the incoming secretary-general a fully adequate period for transition.
So I think we’re at the point, since we’re close to the decision, if anybody
wants to be considered, they need to come forward quickly.

Reporter: Ambassador, have you heard about a new candidate from Thailand,
former foreign minister?
Ambassador Bolton: Only what I’ve read in wire service stories. I am
completely unaware of any other circumstances involving that.

===========

Results From the Third Informal Vote of the U.N. Security Council on the Next Secretary-General, 28 September 2006,

next voting will be on Monday October 2nd and this time there will be a different color for the paper ballots of the five permanent members of the Security Council - those powers that wield a veto power.

According to this third “straw poll,” the only candidate that came up with the minimum of 9 positive votes was Ban Ki Moon from South Korea, and the question is if any of the two votes he did not get are from one of the P5. If this were the case it seems thus that there will be new candidates. In the meantime, Mr. Dhanapala from Sri Lanka withdrew and the observers of the process wonder if Mr. Sathirathai from Thailand will also withdraw. If he does, it can be counted upon that a candidate from Singapore will enter the race, and it is assumed that this is the wish of the UK.

Does the US favor Mr. Moon? Observers say yes - this because they think the US favors a person that will not be outspoken and will rather work in a quiet fashion without creating much of new initiative - it seems that the US wants a UN that is not very active, and it seemingly liked some of Mr. Annan’s predecessors just because they were non-charismatic quiet figures. Above seems to describe very well the well guarded Mr. Moon from what I could see at the time of his presentation before the Asia Society, where he was able to make his presentation without divulging much of his thoughts while still being able to put forward in large strokes the generally accepts notions that there must be a UN reform after 60 years in a changing world.

So, until the coming Monday, the following are the results from this past Friday. Obviously, in case Mr. Ban is vetoed, there might still be a chance that Mr. Sashi Tharoor comes up with the required minimum of nine votes.

Candidates for U.N. Secretary-General		Votes to Encourage	Votes to Discourage	Votes of No Opinion
	Ban Ki Moon, South Korea’s foreigminister See Bio.	13	1	1
	Shashi Tharoor, from India, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information; award-winning journalist/novelist See Bio.	8	3	4
	Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Latvian President See Bio.	7	6	2
	Surakiart Sathirathai, Thailand’s deputy prime minister See Bio.	5	7	3
	Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, the Jordanian ambassador to the U.N. See Bio.	3	6	6
Photo NA	Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, former Finance Minister	3	6	6
	Jayantha Dhanapala, of Sri Lanka, served as U.N. undersecretary general for disarmament and as ambassador to the United States See Bio.	3	7	5
???	Unknown future candidates may emerge in the next few days