India calls for transparency and choice in electing UN Secretary-General

United Nations, Oct 21: India has called for drastic reforms in the election of the secretary-general to introduce transparency and choice in the process of picking a successor to Ban Ki-moon next year and said it should not be a prerogative of the five permanent members of the Security Council. India's delegate Bhartruhari Mahtab told the Security Council on Tuesday that the secret straw polls in the Council should be done away with and discussions should be held in open sessions with the secretary-general providing a summary of the proceedings. Moreover, the Security Council should recommend a slate of two or more candidates on whom the General Assembly can vote, he said. The UN Charter only says that the secretary-general should be appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council and a 1946 General Assembly resolution added a provision that only one candidate should be recommended and a debate should be avoided. This has morphed into an arcane process in which the Security Council members vote on candidate with colour-coded ballots -- one colour for permanent members and another for the others. A ballot in the colour of the permanent members automatically results in a veto of a candidate while it won't be known who cast the veto. The candidate who gets a majority with the colour-coded ballots of all the five permanent members is recommended to the General Assembly and its vote to approve the candidate is a given. To make the election transparent, "an important step would also be to do away with secret straw polls using different coloured slips that allow the P5 (five permanent members) to exercise the veto without even taking ownership of it", Mahtab said. "My delegation has pressed for the Council to recommend two or more names to the General Assembly," he added. "While the pronouncements of the General Assembly do not specifically provide for this, there is -- in our view -- no legal impediment for the Council to do so." Mahtab appealed to the non-permanent members of the Security Council to push for changes in the way the secretary-general is elected.