On Wednesday, 7 October, the UN Security Council conducted its fifth ‘straw poll’ on Secretary-General candidates.

The 15 members of the Security Council vote ‘encourage’, ‘discourage’ or ‘no opinion’ on their ballot, indicating the level of support for each candidate among the council. Once again, the poll does not distinguish between the votes of permanent and non-permanent members of the council.

Although some had hoped that today’s straw poll would indicate that the Security Council had made progress in agreeing on one or more candidates, the results instead were mixed. Rebeca Grynspan remained in first place, but her lead weakened from 10 to 9 ‘encourage’ votes. For the first time in this selection process, the straw poll did not show women in the top two positions: Rafael Grossi placed second in today’s poll, moving up from third place in the last round.

Find the full results of the straw polls here.

As in the 2016 process, the straw poll result was not publicly released or formally transmitted to the PGA; however, the results have been leaked online. You can find out more about how the Security Council straw polls work in our Ultimate Guide to the Selection Process.