In the race to be appointed the Secretary General of the United Nations, the former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres is still the one to beat.
In the fifth round of UN Security Council ballots on Monday, Guterres again received the most votes and was the only candidate of the nine to achieve the minimum nine votes required.
Guterres received 12 votes backing his bid for the top job, with two discouraging it and one expressing no opinion.
One of the no votes was from New Zealand which continues to push its own former prime minister Helen Clark despite her lying in last place.
It is likely that Russia is blocking Guterres in favour of a more pliable Eastern European candidate of the six in the race.
The former Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic came second in the latest ballot, the current Slovakian foreign minister Miroslav Lajcek coming in third but both have only eight countries supporting their elevation.
The Security Council members will hold its next poll on October 5th with the permanent council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – all showing coloured ballots with their ‘discourage votes equalling vetoes in a voting system that brings a new meaning to the phrase ‘intestinal complexity.’
