electing a new Secretary-General of the UN is an interesting thing

Comrades,

Electing a new Secretary-General of the UN is an interesting thing.
First of all it's no election at all - it's down to the permanent members of the Security Council [USA, Russia, China, UK, France - known as the P5] although the non-permanent members have some undescribed say in it.
Every member of the P5 has the right to blackball any candidate at any time for any reason with no requirement to disclose the reason, if any.
Straw polls are regularly conducted in secret to "encourage candidates to drop out of the race".
Once the list of candidates is whittled away, the P5 sit down to decide the winner, which is "discussed and decided at a private meeting" according to Rule 48.
The final choice of the P5 is then put to a vote on the floor of the General Assembly, but it is a fait accompli, as there is only one candidate, as by tradition any others left drop out.
While the current 13 candidates are all former leaders or Foreign Ministers of their countries, great store is set by their work inside the UN.
The H-Bomb Clark has the leg up here, as she's been chief of the UN's Development Program for years [The No.3 boss cocky at the UN], while Kevin 07, as far as I know, has just been lurking in the shadows in New York.
In other words -- the K-Rudd, even if he gets approval for his campaign from a Conservative cabinet who hate him - he has absolutely no chance, snowflakes...
The Chinese, for one, have long memories; and didn't much appreciate it when the K-Rudd said he'd been "rat-fucked by the Chinese" back in Copenhagen.
Plans for world domination gone awry.

(originally published 28-07-16)