Tharoor behind South Korean in third straw poll

United Nations, Sep 29 (UNI) South Korean candidate Ban Ki-Moon continues to maintain his lead over Indian candidate Shashi Tharoor and the other five candidates in the third straw poll held for the post of UN Secretary-General.

The informal poll, which has no official bearing, was held late yesterday afternoon.

In the poll, all members of the powerful 15-member Security Council were asked to give their preferences. There was no way to know how the five permanent members on the council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - voted. Their voting pattern is important as any negative vote from any one of them seals the fate of the seven contenders to replace incumbent Kofi Annan, who must leave office on December 31.

Mr Ban, his country's foreign minister, got 13 encouragements, one discourage and one no opinion. In the previous straw poll, he received 14 encouragements and one no opinion.

He was thus comfortably ahead of Mr Tharoor, who got eight encouragements against the previous 10. Mr Tharoor, who got three against and four undecided votes, is currently UN undersecretary-general for public information.

Ms Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Lativian president, was third with seven pros, six negative and two undecided votes.

Mr Surakiart Sathirathai of Thailand, the first to announce the candidacy, received five favorable votes - less encouraging than his previous performance.

The other three - Mr Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Mr Zeid al Hussein (Jordan) and Mr Ashraf Ghani (Afghanistan) - got three votes each in favor.

In the next straw poll, scheduled for Monday, the permanent veto-wielding members will use colored ballots to distinguish theirs from those of the ten nonpermanent members.

In the official vote, a candidate running for the UN chief's post must need at least nine votes in his favour and no negative vote from the permanent members. The candidate thus selected by the Security Council must be confirmed by the 192-member UN General Assembly.

UNI XC SHB HS0946