PSIR Simplified

UN Secretary General Elections: 2026

At present (August 2026), the process of election of the new UN Secretary General is ongoing as the incumbent Secretary General Antonio Guterres will remit office on 31 December, 2026 after a 10-year term. The new Secretary General will take charge on 01 January, 2027 for a five-year term.

Legally, there is no ban on number of terms a person can hold the office of the UN Secretary General, but so far no one has held this office for than two terms. In normal course, the five-year term of the Secretary general Starts on 01 January and ends on 31 December on fifth year.

Norway’s Trygve Lie (1946-52) was the first Secretary General  of the UN. So far total Nine Secretary Generals have been elected for this post. The list is given in chronological order:

1. Trygve Lie (Norway): 1946–1952

2. Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden): 1953–1961

3. U Thant (Myanmar): 1961–1971

4. Kurt Waldheim (Austria): 1972–1981

5. Javier Perez de Cuéllar (Peru): 1982–1991

6. Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt): 1992–1996

7. Kofi Annan (Ghana): 1997–2006

8. Ban Ki-moon (South Korea): 2007–2016

9. Antonio Guterres (Portugal): 2017– 31 December, 2026

Except three Secretary Generals- Trygve Lie (1946-1952), Dag Hammarskjold (1953-1961) and  Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992-1996), all of them have completed two terms. Dag Hammarskjold was elected for second term, but died in a plane crash in September, 1961 in Congo and could not complete his second term. He is the only Secretary general which died in office.  U Thant from Myanmar was the first Asian to hold this post during 1961-71 and Ban Ki Moon was the second Asian to hold this post.

All 9 Secretary Generals of the UN. Image Courtesy: Reddit

How Secretary general is Elected?

Article 97 of the Un Charter provides that the  Secretary general is  appointed by the UN General Assembly on the recommendations of the UN Security Council. The election of the Secretary general takes place in two steps:

First step: the Un Security Council recommends a name supported by 9votes including the votes of the five permanent members. It means a permanent member of the  UNSC can exercise veto in the election of Secretary General. For this reason, an Indian have least chance to be elected as UN Secretary General As China will most likely use its veto against the Indian candidate.

What is Straw Voting?

Before the formal recommendation of the UNSC, we often here about Straw Voting in the UNSC.  Straw Voting is the informal but secret voting to guess the opinion of the UNSC members about different candidates. It is not a formal decision of the UNSC. It helps poor performing candidates to go out of race before the formal voting by the UNSC. There might be many rounds of Straw voting. Straw Voting is so named after the practice of the farmers in ancient times to throw a piece of straw in the wind to guess the direction of wind. So straw voting in the UNSC helps in guessing the informal opinion of the UNSC members.

Second Step: In the second step, UN General Assembly considers the recommendation of the UNSC and approves the name by simple majority of members present and voting. If the name is approved, the person is appointed as Secretary General.

What are the functions of UN Secretary General?

The following functions of the UN Secretary general are mentioned in the Article 98-101 of the UN Charter:

1. Article 98-  He provides secretariat assistance to the meeting of the UN organs. He also prepares the Annual Report of the UN and submits the same to the  General Assembly
2. Article 99- He has the authority and responsibility to bring matters  threatening international peace and security to the attention of the UNSC.
3. Article 100- He should maintain independence and should not seek instructions from external authorities (from other countries).
4. Article 101- Under the regulations framed by the UN General Assembly, he has the power to appoint the staff  and officers in the UN Secretariat.