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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Portugal's former prime minister Antonio Guterres topped the third successive poll of candidates seeking to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the next U.N. secretary-general, making him the clear front-runner for the job as the world's top diplomat, U.N. diplomats said Monday.
Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak was the big surprise of the latest informal poll — jumping to second place after finishing next to last in the second "straw" poll, said the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because voting is supposed to be kept secret.
Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, who heads UNESCO, and Serbia's former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic were tied for third place followed by Argentina's Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, the diplomats said.
By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions. Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have all held the world's top diplomatic post.
East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general and it is their turn. There has also never been a woman secretary-general and a group of 56 nations are campaigning to elect the first female U.N. chief along with many organizations.
Secretary-General Ban, whose term expires on Dec. 31, said earlier this month that after eight men "it's high time now" for a woman to head the United Nations.
The secretary-general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council. In practice, this has meant that the council's five permanent members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — have veto power over the candidates.
In the informal polls, council members have voted whether to "encourage," ''discourage," or express "no opinion" about the 10 candidates — five men and five women.
When the polls began, there were 12 candidates, six men and six women. But no women has placed above third in any of the polls.
Malcorra was quoted by the Argentine newspaper Clarin as saying that "there is still a biased vote against women" at the United Nations.
Guterres, who was Portugal's center-left Socialist prime minister from 1995-2002 and served as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees until the end of last year, got 11 "encourage" votes, three "discourage" and one "no opinion" in Monday's poll. In the first "straw" poll he had no "discourage" votes and in the second he had two.
Lajcak, a former European Union diplomat who is in his second stint as Slovakia's foreign minister, got nine "encourage" votes, five "discourage" and one "no opinion."
In sixth place was former Macedonian foreign minister Srgjan Kerim followed by former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who heads the U.N. Development Program.
Slovenia's former president Danilo Turk was in eighth place followed by a tie for last place between Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman and Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, the U.N. official who played a key role in shaping last December's historic agreement to fight climate change.
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