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Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has withdrawn from the race to become the next United Nations secretary-general, ending her bid to become the first woman to lead the world body in its 80-year history, Al Jazeera reported.
Bachelet, 74, announced her decision on Saturday in a video posted on Instagram. She said she had decided not to continue her candidacy for the position but did not regret taking on what she called a “great challenge”, even if “the time was not right” for the campaign she sought to represent.
Bachelet receives one favourable vote
Her withdrawal followed the UN Security Council’s third informal straw poll, held on Friday. Bachelet received one “encourage” vote, 11 “discourage” votes and three “no opinion” votes.
Her support had declined from six favourable votes in July and two in August. Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, head of the UN Trade and Development body, led the latest poll with nine “encourage” votes, followed by Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett with eight.
Other candidates still in the race include International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, former Senegalese President Macky Sall and Ecuadorian diplomat Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
Latin America was expected to have a strong claim
Bachelet was nominated by Chile in February with the backing of Brazil and Mexico. Only one Latin American, Peru’s Javier Perez de Cuellar, has previously served as UN secretary-general, while an unofficial regional rotation had placed Latin America in line for the current selection cycle.
A candidate needs the support of at least nine of the Security Council’s 15 members and must avoid a veto from any of its five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — before the selection proceeds to a final vote in the General Assembly.
UN faces financial and geopolitical challenges
The successor to current Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term ends on December 31, will take charge of an organisation facing multiple crises.
Guterres warned member states earlier this year that the UN faced “imminent financial collapse”. Unpaid dues had reached $1.57 billion by the end of 2025, with only a fraction of countries having paid their contributions in full.
World leaders are due to gather in New York next week for the General Assembly’s annual high-level session, which opens on Tuesday under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation”. Guterres has also warned that divisions among major powers have left the organisation deadlocked over Gaza, Ukraine and other crises.
