Michelle Bachelet, the 74-year-old former Chilean president, announced her decision to exit the race for UN secretary-general on Saturday through a video statement on Instagram. She acknowledged that while she did not regret pursuing the position, the timing was not appropriate for the candidacy she sought to represent.
Bachelet’s withdrawal followed the release of the UN Security Council’s third informal straw poll conducted on Friday, in which her support had significantly diminished. She received only one encouraging vote alongside 11 discouraging votes and three abstentions, a sharp decline from six encouraging votes in July and two in August. The same poll showed Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, who leads the UN’s Trade and Development body, in the leading position with nine encouraging votes, trailed closely by Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett with eight votes.
Other candidates remaining in contention for the position include Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, former Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Ecuadorian diplomat Maria Fernanda Espinosa. To secure a recommendation from the Security Council, a candidate must obtain at least nine affirmative votes from the body’s 15 members while avoiding opposition from any of the five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Bachelet had been nominated by Chile in February with support from Brazil and Mexico. Her candidacy reflected an unofficial regional rotation system within the UN, as Latin America was considered positioned for this selection cycle. Only one Latin American leader, Peru’s Javier Perez de Cuellar, has previously served as secretary-general.
The successor to current Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose tenure concludes on December 31, will assume leadership of an organization confronting substantial challenges, including significant financial constraints and geopolitical deadlock on major global conflicts.
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