International   

S. Korea's candidate leads straw poll for U.N. post

SEOUL: South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was calm on Friday over his advantage in the latest straw poll for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.

``It is still too early to draw a conclusion,'' Mr. Ban told reporters here upon his arrival at the Incheon International Airport.

He was back from New York after attending the U.N. General Assembly meeting there.

``I will wait with a humble heart for the results of the fourth straw poll and the official election,'' said Mr. Ban, who received the outcome of the third straw poll at the airport.

Mr. Ban got 13 ``encouragement'' votes, one of ``discouragement'' and one of no opinion at Friday's informal poll of the 15-member U.N. Security Council, which was the third time for Mr. Ban to keep advantage in polls for the U.N. chief, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

According to Yonhap, Shashi Tharoor, the Indian U.N. Undersecretary-General for public information, was in the second place with eight encouragement votes in the third straw poll.

However, it is not clear whether Mr. Ban gained the crucial approval of all five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, as they used the same coloured ballot papers as the 10 non-standing members.

The five permanent members will cast ballots on blue papers while the non-standing members will use white ones in the fourth straw poll set for October 2. — Xinhua

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Dhanapala may opt out
Iran rejects terms for nuclear talks
U.N. envoy for tsunami recovery seeks revival of talks in Sri Lanka
E.U. expansion to take a pause
Musharraf, Karzai exchanged hot words?
U.K. military brass for Iraq pullout
A Robert Frost poem rediscovered
Now, Bluetooth watches to display caller identity
S. Korea's candidate leads straw poll for U.N. post
Georgia trying to provoke conflict, says Russia
War of the First Ladies
Meet on Tibetan culture
Priests steal millions
Soz calls on Rajapaksa

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu