United Nations Secretary-General selection United Nations Secretary-General selection is the process of selecting the next secretary-general of the United Nations. To be selected as secretary-general, a candidate must receive the votes of at least nine members of the United Nations Securit ...

was held in 1976 at the end of

Kurt Waldheim Kurt Josef Waldheim (; 21 December 1918 – 14 June 2007) was an Austrian politician and diplomat. Waldheim was the Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981 and president of Austria from 1986 to 1992. While he was running for t ...

's first term. After a single symbolic veto from China to show its support for a Secretary-General from the Third World, Waldheim easily defeated

Luis Echeverría Álvarez Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

in the balloting. The Security Council re-selected Kurt Waldheim as Secretary General for another five-year term beginning 1 January 1977.

Background

The

Secretary-General of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. Therefore, candidates for the office can be vetoed by any of the permanent members. As the end of Kurt Waldheim's first term approached, China asked several Third World countries to nominate a competing candidate. The Chinese expressed their dissatisfaction that a European would lead the United Nations, which had a Third World majority in its membership. Six people expressed interest in the job, but none of them seemed likely to defeat Waldheim.

Candidates

On 11 October 1976, Kurt Waldheim announced that he was running for re-selection. Although Waldheim had been opposed by three permanent members in the 1971 selection, Waldheim now enjoyed the support of both superpowers. One Asian diplomat explained, "The big powers all want a colorless administrator who does what he is told, and doesn't think he is Jesus Christ." Expecting Waldheim to run unopposed, the Security Council prepared for an early vote. However, China and other Third World countries delayed the vote until December to give a chance for other candidates to step forward. Nevertheless, Chinese Foreign Minister

Qiao Guanhua Qiao Guanhua (; March 28, 1913 – September 22, 1983
." ''

Waldheim even received the support of the

Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...

. On 18 October 1976, outgoing Mexican President

announced his candidacy for the Secretary-Generalship. From his first year in office, Echeverría had criticized the United States and backed the aspirations of the Third World, increasing Mexico's diplomatic presence by establishing

diplomatic relations Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

with 62 additional countries. Echeverría maintained a high public profile until the end of his term, contrary to the usual Mexican practice of stepping back to pave the way for his chosen successor,

José López Portillo José Guillermo Abel López Portillo y Pacheco (; 16 June 1920 – 17 February 2004) was a Mexican writer, lawyer and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as the 58th president of Mexico from 1976 t ...

. Cynics claimed that Echeverría was courting Third World support so that he could become U.N. Secretary-General after leaving the Mexican Presidency. López Portillo's aides expressed their hope that Echeverría could become Secretary-General so that he would be out of the country for most of Portillo's term. On 15 November 1976,

Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe, CCS (18 March 1913 – 4 December 1980) was a Sri Lankan diplomat and civil servant. He was High Commissioner to India and concurrently Ambassador to both Nepal and Afghanistan (1963–1967) and Permanent Secreta ...

of Sri Lanka announced that he would be willing to serve as Secretary-General if the Security Council voted for him unanimously. However, he would not put his name on the ballot alongside the two existing candidates. This maneuver would place him in contention as a compromise candidate in case the Security Council deadlocked between Waldheim and Echeverría. Amerasinghe was then the

President of the General Assembly The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The president is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly. Election ...

Voting

On 7 December 1976, the Security Council met to vote on the recommendation of a Secretary-General. In the first round, Waldheim easily outpolled Echeverría. China voted for Echeverría and cast a symbolic veto against Waldheim to demonstrate its support for a Third World candidate. The Soviet Union voted against Echeverría, and the other three permanent members abstained. The Security Council immediately conducted a second round of voting. China dropped its veto and voted for Waldheim, giving him a winning tally of 14-0-1. Echeverría received only 3 votes in favor. As a result, Kurt Waldheim was selected Secretary-General for a second five-year term beginning on 1 January 1977.

References

{{Reflist United Nations Secretariat Secretaries-General of the United Nations