Former Ugandan official Olara Otunnu
NEW YORK — Uganda has entered the race for the next United Nations Secretary-General, nominating veteran diplomat Olara Otunnu just days before the first informal vote by the UN Security Council.
Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, formally submitted Otunnu’s nomination in a letter dated July 24 to the presidents of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.
Otunnu becomes the seventh candidate seeking to succeed António Guterres, whose second and final term ends on December 31, 2026.
The nomination comes unusually late in the campaign.
Candidates for the UN’s top job have already taken part in a public town hall hosted by the General Assembly on July 23, where they presented their visions and answered questions from member states and civil society. Otunnu did not participate because his candidacy had not yet been announced.
His late entry also comes just days before the first Security Council straw poll, scheduled for July 30. The informal vote is widely regarded as the first major test of each candidate’s chances of securing the Council’s backing.
Although the General Assembly formally appoints the Secretary-General, the Security Council plays the decisive role by recommending a single candidate. Any of the Council’s five permanent members can effectively block a contender by using its veto.
Uganda’s decision has also revived debate over the UN’s long-standing but informal principle of regional rotation.
Many diplomats had expected the next Secretary-General to come from Latin America or the Caribbean, the only regional group that has never produced a UN chief under the current rotation pattern.
Otunnu is the second African to enter the race, following former Senegalese President Macky Sall. Their candidacies have prompted questions about whether African countries are placing less emphasis on the regional rotation principle they have traditionally supported.
Otunnu brings decades of international experience to the contest.
He previously served as Uganda’s foreign minister and as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. He has also led international efforts on children’s rights and conflict resolution.
With campaigning now entering its final phase, attention will shift to next week’s Security Council straw poll, which is expected to provide the clearest indication yet of who is emerging as the frontrunner for what has often been described as “the most impossible job on earth.”
