S Korean to be UN chief; Tharoor bows out

United Nations, Oct 3 (UNI) Shashi Tharoor, UN undersecretary-general for public information and India's candidate for the post of Secretary-General, has lost the race and withdrawn from the contest, an official poll for which will be held next week.

In the final informal straw poll held yesterday, Tharoor again came second to South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, who received 14 positive votes and no veto. Even in earlier polls, the Indian nominee had been second to Ban.

It's now almost certain that after the official vote by the 15-member powerful Security Council, the South Korean will replace Kofi Annan as the UN Secretary-General in January. After a recommendation of the South Korean's name, the 192-member UN General Assembly usually endorses the Security Council's recommendation.

Wang Guangya, the Chinese envoy to the United Nations, echoed the same feeling while speaking to reporters. ''It's quite clear from today's vote that Minister Ban Ki-Moon is the candidate the Security Council will recommend to the General Assembly,'' he said.

Such a candidate must get not fewer than nine votes and no veto in the Security Council to succeed Annan, whose two terms of 10 years ends on December 31.

Tharoor got 10 favorable, three negative (one of them was from the Permanent Five) and two no-opinion votes.

''I've written to Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon to express my warmest congratulations on the outcome of the poll,'' Tharoor said in a statement, adding that it's clear he will be our next secretary-general.

Tharoor said he would strongly support Ban, 62, because the United Nations and the world have a stake in his success.

This was the fourth and final informal straw poll since July, but the first to distinguish between the five permanent and 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council.

There were four other candidates after the withdrawal of Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Most council members agreed with the Chinese contention that the next secretary-general should be from Asia. All the candidates, except Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia, are Asians.

The United States seems to have joined China in this connection.

John Bolton, the American envoy to the United Nations, said Washington has a lot of respect for Foreign Minister Ban.

The last Asian secretary-general was U Thant of Burma (now Myanmar) who held the post between 1961 and 1971.

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