Costa Rica’s Grynspan leads remaining candidates after Friday poll
Michelle Bachelet has withdrawn from the race to become the next United Nations secretary general, ending a campaign that had struggled to gain traction among security council members. Her departure narrows the field to seven candidates as the selection process moves toward a formal recommendation.
Bachelet, 74, announced her decision in a video posted on Instagram on Saturday. “I will now continue, with the same determination as always, my international work,” she said in the video.
A two-time president of Chile and former UN high commissioner for human rights, Bachelet had positioned her campaign around defending multilateralism and international law at a time when she said both were under sustained pressure.
Her withdrawal follows a third informal straw poll held on Friday, in which her support had all but collapsed. The same poll put Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan in the lead among the remaining contenders.
Seven candidates remain in the contest to succeed António Guterres, who will conclude his second five-year term on 31 December. It remains possible for additional candidates to enter the race before the selection process concludes.
The mechanism proceeds in two stages. The security council first conducts a series of straw polls to gauge support among its members and ultimately formally recommends a single candidate to the 193-member general assembly for election. Once the council reaches consensus, the assembly’s approval has long been treated as a formality.
Bachelet’s exit removes from the contest a two-time Chilean president and former UN high commissioner for human rights, who brought to the race a background that combined national leadership with senior multilateral institution service.