On Friday, 30 October, the UN Security Council conducted its seventh ‘straw poll’ on Secretary-General candidates. Since the last straw poll on 16 October, Macky Sall has withdrawn his candidacy, and the UAE has nominated Lana Nusseibeh. Her General Assembly interactive dialogue took place on 27 October.

The straw poll collects the 15 members of the Security Council’s ‘encourage’, ‘discourage’ or ‘no opinion’ votes for candidates, indicating the level of support for each candidate among the council. For this ballot, the Council has reverted to a non-colour coded system, so the votes of the P5 are not distinguished from the elected members.

In this seventh straw poll Rebeca Grynspan widened her lead with 11 ‘encourage’ votes; two more than she received in the previous straw poll. However, according to the results, she received four discourage votes suggesting that opposition to her candidacy remains. In the previous ballot, which was colour-coded, she received five discourage votes two of which were from P5 members. To be successful a candidate needs to have the backing of at least 9 Council members while avoiding a veto from any P5 member.

Despite widespread speculation that late entrant Nusseibeh may have garnered wide support from Council members ahead of this poll, she landed in fourth place with seven ‘encourage’ , six ‘discourage’ and two ‘no opinion’.

Find the full results of the straw polls here.

As in the 2016 process, the straw poll results are not officially published or shared with the wider UN membership. The almost immediate leaking of the results online reflects a sense of frustration with the Council’s lack of transparency. You can find out more about how the Security Council straw polls work in our Ultimate Guide to the Selection Process.