The 2026 selection

Choosing the next UN Secretary-General in 2026

The ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations will be chosen during 2026 and will take office on 1 January 2027. This page explains how the selection actually works, what the timeline looks like, what member states weigh when they compare candidates, and where the procedure itself came from.

It is written from an unusual vantage point. The straw-ballot procedure that the Security Council still uses to narrow the field was designed in December 1981 by Olara Otunnu, then President of the Security Council, and is known in UN practice as the Otunnu Formula.

The rule

What the Charter says

Article 97 of the Charter is brief: the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. Two consequences follow. The Security Council, and within it the five permanent members, effectively selects. The General Assembly, representing the whole membership, confirms.

Everything else - nominations, vision statements, hearings, straw polls, regional rotation - is practice built up around those two sentences. That is why procedure matters so much in a Secretary-General race: the rules that decide the outcome are mostly conventions, and conventions can be reformed.

Origins

The Otunnu Formula

In late 1981 the Security Council could not agree on a successor to Kurt Waldheim. Round after round of voting produced vetoes on both leading candidates and no way forward. As President of the Security Council for December 1981, Olara Otunnu proposed an informal straw-ballot system: members would signal encouragement or discouragement for each candidate rather than cast blocking votes, and the ballots of permanent members would be distinguishable from those of elected members.

The device let the Council map where the real obstacles lay without forcing anyone into a public veto. The deadlock broke, Javier Perez de Cuellar was recommended, and the mechanism has shaped every selection since, including the one now under way.

See the full record of service

Timeline

How 2026 unfolds

  1. Late 2025 - early 2026

    The Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council issue a joint letter inviting member states to nominate candidates, with curricula vitae and written vision statements to be circulated to the whole membership.

  2. First half of 2026

    Informal dialogues and hearings in the General Assembly. Candidates present their vision statements, answer questions from member states and civil society, and are compared in public for the first time.

  3. Mid to late 2026

    The Security Council begins straw polls. Each member marks every candidate encourage, discourage, or no opinion. Colour-coded ballots in later rounds reveal whether a discouragement comes from a permanent member.

  4. Autumn 2026

    When one name emerges with no discouragement from a permanent member, the Council adopts a formal resolution recommending that candidate to the General Assembly.

  5. Before 31 December 2026

    The General Assembly appoints the ninth Secretary-General, normally by acclamation, and the new term begins on 1 January 2027.

The field

What member states weigh

Candidates are nominated by member states, and the field is not fixed until the Security Council begins polling. Rather than speculate on names, it is more useful to set out the criteria that recur in every selection.

  • Standing and independence: the Charter describes the Secretary-General as the chief administrative officer of the Organization, but Article 99 also gives the office a political voice that only an independent figure can use.
  • Regional rotation: an informal convention favours regions that have not recently held the office. Africa has held it twice, most recently until 2006, and the case for an African Secretary-General is again being pressed.
  • Gender: no woman has ever served. Successive General Assembly resolutions have encouraged member states to nominate women candidates.
  • Command of the system: peace operations, humanitarian response, development finance and the specialised agencies each require direct executive experience, not only diplomatic experience.
  • Acceptability to the permanent five: any candidate must be able to work with all five permanent members without becoming the instrument of any of them.

Read Olara Otunnu's vision statement

Questions

Common questions about 2026

When is the next UN Secretary-General chosen?

The current Secretary-General's second term runs to 31 December 2026. The General Assembly and Security Council run the selection during 2026, with informal dialogues and hearings in the first half of the year and Security Council straw polls in the second half, so that an appointment can be made before the term ends.

Who actually decides?

Under Article 97 of the UN Charter, the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice the Council settles on a single name through a series of straw polls, in which any of the five permanent members can block a candidate, and the General Assembly then appoints by acclamation.

What is a straw poll?

A straw poll is an informal, non-binding ballot inside the Security Council in which each member marks every candidate as encourage, discourage, or no opinion. Later rounds use differently coloured ballots for permanent and elected members, so a veto-wielding objection becomes visible before a formal vote is taken.

What is the Otunnu Formula?

In December 1981 the Security Council was deadlocked over the succession to Kurt Waldheim. As President of the Security Council that month, Olara Otunnu devised the straw-ballot procedure that separated the preferences of permanent members from those of elected members. It broke the deadlock, produced the appointment of Javier Perez de Cuellar, and has framed every selection since.

Is the process open to the public?

Partly. Since General Assembly resolution 69/321 in 2015, candidates are formally nominated by member states, their names and vision statements are circulated, and they take part in public informal dialogues with the membership. The decisive straw polls, however, remain closed sessions of the Security Council.