As the current Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon completes his second term as our Secretary-General, there shall be a new official elected by the UN-General Assembly in December this year.

On June 3, I attended, on behalf of my UNA-SL branch, the first ever hustings for that position, the event in London was held jointly at the Barbican Centre by the Guardian, UNA-UK, the Danish Embassy and the Future UN-Development system (FUNDS).

Initially all nine contenders for the vitally important post were due to attend, but much to the disappointment of the near 350 attendees, including me, only three contenders turned up to face several pre-agreed questions.

The organising four, put an enormous amount of effort to the theme: ‘1 for 7 Billion' campaign where, for the first time in the 71 year history of the UN, the public at large were able to engage in a more democratic process to select the new Secretary-General.

The UN Security Council, which normally has the major role in the election of the Secretary-General, has undertaken a more transparent way, this time all prospective candidates are to be questioned by the public in major capital cities, before the UNSC draws up a short list for the UN-General Assembly to select the final three candidates, out of whom the successful person is elected by the UNSC unanimously.

Unfortunately, the Barbican event was most disappointing as only three of the contenders took part, they were: HE, Antonio-Guteeres, former Prime Minister of Portugal and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees; HE, Vuk Jeremic, former President of the UN-General Assembly and former Foreign Minister of Serbia; and lastly HE, Dr Igor Luksic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration-Montenegro.

Eminent candidates such as Mary Robinson, former President of Eire; Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former Director-General of the UN-Development Programme and Susana Malcorra, current Foreign Minister of Argentina and three other contenders did not turn up. Personally, I was very concerned that only three out of the first mooted nine candidates only came. I failed to ascertain what the reason was, or whether the absent six, including three excellent women candidates, failed to come or for that matter, have dropped out of the race (highly unlikely).

In the final analysis, the UN-Security Council, has the last word on who may be the new Secretary-General, even though the new process is more democratic.

I hope to write to the Gazette in October, when it is clearer who may be our 9th and next UN-Secretary-General.

Luckshan Abeysuriya - Retired Board Member UNA-UK and UNA-South Lakes Branch

Ulverston