Second round of voting: US, Great Britain, Ukraine, and New Zealand against Jeremić

Negative votes for Serbian candidate for UN Secretary-General Vuk Jeremić in the second round of voting in the Security Council were cast by the US, Great Britain, Ukraine, and New Zealand, write Belgrade's Večernje novosti, reports the Patria News Agency.

Citing unofficial information, the paper states that London abstained in the previous vote on July 21 and notes that New Zealand's negative vote was expected as that country has its own candidate for UN Secretary-General.

Antonio Guterres remained at the top of the table with 11 positive votes, three more than Jeremić, but the Portuguese candidate also received two negative votes this time, unlike the first vote when he had none.

The paper states that Argentinian Susana Malcorra, considered the American favorite, was close behind the Serbian candidate in the second vote. She has the same number of positive votes but two more negative votes.

While Jeremić improved his rating, jumping from third to second place, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria fell from third place, which she shared with Jeremić, to fifth. Slovenian Danilo Türk also faltered, slipping from second place to fourth.

Sixth is Macedonia's candidate Srgjan Kerim, followed by New Zealander Helen Clark, Costa Rican Christiana Figueres, Montenegrin Igor Lukšić, Slovak Miroslav Lajčák, and Moldovan Natalia Gherman.

Jeremić is now, in fact, in first place within the group for which a Secretary-General was originally intended, namely the Eastern European region. The Security Council is expected to arrive at a single candidate through several rounds of informal voting, who will then be recommended to the UN General Assembly.

In the event that consensus is not reached among the Security Council members regarding the proposed candidate, several candidates will be presented to the 193 member states of the General Assembly. The election of the new UN Secretary-General is expected to be completed by November.