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Tharoor bows out, Ban almost home
S Korean Ban wins clearly in Monday's straw poll, capturing 14 positive votes, reports S Rajagopalan. Your take
India's nominee Shashi Tharoor has gracefully bowed out of the UN Secretary-General race after the South Korean front-runner, Ban Ki-moon, emerged a clear winner in Monday's crucial straw poll, capturing 14 positive votes and one of 'no opinion'.
Significantly, Ban was the only candidate to escape a negative vote from any of the 15 Security Council members, including the five veto-wielding nations — US, Britain, France, Russia and China.
Tharoor won 10 positive votes, but one of his three negative votes was from a veto power, thus ending his prospects. His tally included two "no opinion" votes.
Soon after the result of the informal poll was out, Tharoor wrote to Ban, warmly congratulating him on the outcome.
"It is clear that he (Ban) will be our next Secretary-General," Tharoor said in a statement to the media. "It's a great honour and a huge responsibility to be Secretary-General and I wish Ban every success in that task."
An official poll is slated to be held on October 9 in which the Security Council is expected to formalise Ban's nomination, which will then be sent to the 192-member UN General Assembly for approval.
That there was little doubt about Ban's emergence as the next UN chief was indicated by China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya. "It is quite clear from today's vote that Minister Ban Ki-moon is the candidate the Security Council will recommend," he told reporters.
Tharoor profusely thanked the Government of India for having nominated him as its official candidate. "Though I have never been an official of the government, I consider it a great honour to have been the bearer of India's nomination, as well as of the hopes and aspirations of so many well-wishers in India and around the world."
"I have been humbled by the support, good wishes and prayers that they have conveyed to me. Although I did not win the race, it is a matter of genuine pride to me that I was deemed worthy by so many people and won the votes of so many governments," he said.
"I entered the race because of my devotion to the United Nations, and for the same reason I will strongly support him as the next Secretary-General. The UN, and the world, has a stake in his success," Tharoor said.
Monday's straw poll was the first one to use coloured ballots to distinguish between the votes of the five permanent members with veto powers and the 10 non-permanent members. The former used blue-coloured ballots and the latter used white ballots.
The identity of the sole veto-wielding member who voted against Tharoor was not known. The other four contestants with negative votes had also run up one or more vote of discouragement from the veto members.
