The campaign of Guyana’s Candidate for the United Nations Secretary General position, Ambassador Carolyn-Rodrigues- Birkett, has been given a major boost after Thursday’s town hall meeting at the United Nations involving all of the candidates.

Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues- Birkett, Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Ecuador’s Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan, and Senegal’s Macky Sall are all in the running to succeed outgoing Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who leaves office December 31.

Each candidate explained why they would be the best Secretary General, highlighting strengths for confronting a particularly difficult era in global conflict, citing national or international experience and touting their ability to speak with all sides.

Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett promised to take on the UN’s toughest challenges, while promising to reform many of the UN systems.

“Reforms to make this organization more efficient, more effective and more agile is now an imperative but it is in times of challenges that opportunities emerge and it is also in a moment like this that you need a Secretary-General that is practical, who is realistic and who is pragmatic,” Ambassador Rodrigues Birkett said.

She said over her years as a civil servant, working both locally and internationally, she has gained the experience and the expertise that the UN needs now.

“I have also led in times of scarce resources and even with scarce resources I delivered results to ensure that we mobilize additional finances. I have also had the approach of building bridges and uniting people around common goals and objectives and ensuring fairness. These are the attributes that I believe we need in the next Secretary General and this is why I put forward myself so that we could work together fir for purpose now and for the future,” Ambassador Birkett noted.

Following the town hall session, Ambassador Birkett picked up major leads in a number of polls that were tracking the debate live.

The 15-member UN Security Council will meet next week in their first closed-door, anonymous vote on their preferences among the candidates.

That first “straw poll” will be followed by an unspecified number of similar votes until one candidate can secure the required nine votes without a veto from any of the five permanent members — the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia.

The name of the selected candidate will then be sent to the General Assembly for the formal appointment to the position. The new Secretary General will take office in January 2027.

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