Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan Leads the First Straw Poll for UN Chief

Rebeca Grynspan, a former vice president of Costa Rica who now heads UNCTAD, led the first Security Council straw poll on 31 July for the post of United Nations secretary-general, with 10 encourage votes, 1 discourage and 4 no opinion. Guyana's Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett followed on 9, 2 and 4, and Rafael Grossi of Argentina, who runs the UN nuclear watchdog, took 7, 2 and 6.

Behind them, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet recorded 6 encourage against 5 discourage, former Senegalese president Macky Sall 6 against 7, former Ecuadorean foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa 5 against 2, and Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu 2 against 5.

Straw polls are unattributed and non-binding, and that is what makes them useful: a discourage vote from a permanent member is a veto in draft form. The rounds are expected to continue into late September or early October, after which the fifteen member Security Council votes formally, requiring nine votes and no veto from the five permanent members, with the General Assembly's approval following by tradition.

Grynspan would be the first woman and the first Jewish secretary-general. She is descended from refugees from the Holocaust and has family connections in Israel. Antonio Guterres of Portugal leaves the post at the end of 2026.