UN Secretary-General Race Enters Final Stretch

Ambassadors on the 15-member UN Security Council will hold their sixth and last informal straw poll on Wednesday, with the five permanent members using coloured ballots to mark candidates they would like to block.

Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, who holds the Security Council's rotating presidency in October, said he hoped member states will avoid unnecessary drama and set the stage for formal voting in the coming days.

"Then things will become clear as to: do we have a candidate who we are prepared to recommend to the General Assembly? Are we close to having a candidate whom we might be prepared to propose to the General Assembly? Or do we need to start from scratch?" Associated Press quoted Churkin as saying on Monday.

"We do believe that it's the turn of Eastern Europe to provide the next secretary-general. We would very much like to see a woman," Churkin said.

The Russian ambassador's remarks came just a day after the EU's budget chief, Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian candidate for the post, presented her vision of the UN's future to the New York-based diplomats.

Georgieva, who skipped five rounds of voting, is believed to be a candidate who could bring East and West closer on the issue of choosing the next Secretary-General, despite the fact that another Bulgarian candidate, Irina Bokova, remains in the race.

So far, Portuguese diplomat Antonio Guterres has claimed the biggest support among Security Council members, with two 'discouraging' votes in the last round.

UN diplomats speculated that at least of those two negative ballots may have come from a permanent member, meaning that an unidentified big power intends to block his bid.

Former Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic came in second just...