Portugal's António Guterres selected as next UN secretary-general

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published 5 October 2016

The 15 members of the United Nations Security Council unanimously agreed Wednesday that former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres will be the U.N.'s next secretary-general. The council will hold a formal vote Thursday morning to confirm Guterres, who Russian U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said was a "clear favorite" among council members.

Guterres served as the U.N.'s high commissioner for refugees for a decade, where he consistently advocated for refugees throughout his tenure; he left that post in December 2015. He has already "vowed to carry on being a spokesman for the downtrodden if he became U.N. secretary-general," The Guardian reported. "You can't imagine what it is to see levels of suffering that are unimaginable," Guterres said last summer.

Guterres was up against nine other candidates, including European Commission vice president Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria, who would have been the first woman to be secretary-general. If the 193 members of the General Assembly approve him, Guterres will replace current secretary-general Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of next year.