Macky Sall UN Bid Trails as Costa Rica Leads Straw Poll
SENEGAL · GEOPOLITICS
Key Facts
—Fifth place: Reporting on the leaked outcome of the 30 July straw poll puts Macky Sall fifth of seven candidates.
—Who led: Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan took 10 encouraging votes, ahead of Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett on nine and Argentina’s Rafael Grossi on seven.
—No official result: Council members agreed the outcome would stay confidential; the presidency keeps no record and shreds the ballots.
—Who is in the chair: July’s Council president is Ambassador Zénon Mukongo Ngay of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
—Two Africans in seven: Sall and Uganda’s Olara Otunnu are the only African candidates; five of the seven come from Latin America and the Caribbean.
—Nominated by Burundi: Senegal did not put Sall forward. Burundi nominated him on 2 March.
—Not finished: Sall’s team says no decision is settled and is looking to the later rounds.
The Macky Sall UN bid came fifth of seven in the Security Council’s first straw poll on 30 July, according to reporting on results the Council had agreed to keep secret. Three Latin American and Caribbean candidates finished ahead of him.
What the first vote said about the Macky Sall UN bid
Security Council members met on the morning of 30 July to hold the first straw poll on who should succeed António Guterres, whose second term ends this year. Each member received one ballot per candidate, marked either encouraged, discouraged or no opinion expressed.
The polls are informal and non-binding, designed to test whether a candidacy is viable before the Council makes a formal recommendation. Article 97 of the UN Charter gives the General Assembly the appointment, but only on the Council’s recommendation.
By the accounts that reached the press, Grynspan finished first with 10 encouraging votes, Rodrigues Birkett second with nine and Grossi third with seven. Sall placed fifth.
A secret ballot that did not stay secret
Council members spent May negotiating the rules for these polls in a document that was never published. They settled on no Secretariat presence, no official record and ballots shredded at the end of the session.
Denmark, Greece and Latvia argued for publishing the results. Several members, including elected ones, refused, and the compromise leaves nominating states privately informed of their own candidate’s score plus the highest and lowest across the field, with no names attached.
It has not held. The same secrecy agreement was in place in 2015 and 2016, and those results leaked almost immediately too.
Why the field leans so heavily to Latin America
Five of the seven candidates come from Latin America and the Caribbean: Michelle Bachelet of Chile, María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica and Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett of Guyana. Sall and Otunnu are the African two.
The reason is the informal convention of regional rotation. Latin America has not held the post since Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru left it in 1991, while Africa held it through Boutros Boutros-Ghali and then Kofi Annan until 2006.
That makes this a rare contest in which African and Latin American claims run against each other rather than together. Both regions can argue, with a straight face, that it is their turn.
The nomination that came from Burundi
One detail sits oddly in the record. Sall was nominated on 2 March by Burundi, not by Senegal, the country he governed for twelve years.
The Rio Times reported in July that he was still working to secure Dakar’s public backing. A candidate whose own capital has not formally proposed him starts a long way behind one nominated at home.
The late entry of Olara Otunnu, nominated by Uganda on 24 July, added a second complication. He was included in the straw poll without first appearing before the General Assembly, which the Assembly’s president and a group of member states objected to in writing.
What happens next
More straw polls follow. At a later stage the Council switches to colour-coded ballots that distinguish the five permanent members from the ten elected ones, and that is the point at which a veto becomes visible rather than merely suspected.
General Assembly president Annalena Baerbock has said dialogues with candidates nominated after 23 July will be arranged at the earliest opportunity, and by the week of 24 August at the latest. An informal survey after the 23 July town hall had Rodrigues Birkett well ahead on who convinced the room.
Sall’s camp is not conceding. “No decision is yet settled,” his team said, pointing to the consultations still to come.
Why this matters beyond the diplomacy
The Secretary-General shapes what the UN does about peacekeeping mandates, climate finance and sovereign debt, three files that land hardest on African and Latin American budgets. Who holds the office is not a ceremonial question for either region.
For a Senegalese candidate it also carries a domestic charge, since Sall left office in 2024 after a contested transition and the job would recast him as a global figure. For the wider continent, a fifth place in the first count is a warning rather than a verdict.
There is one more piece of symmetry worth noting. The ambassador running the vote is Congolese, the leading candidate is Costa Rican, and the outcome will be decided by five capitals that sit in neither region.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did Macky Sall place in the first UN straw poll?
Reporting on the leaked results puts him fifth of the seven candidates in the 30 July straw poll. Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan led with 10 encouraging votes, ahead of Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett on nine and Argentina’s Rafael Grossi on seven.
Why were the results not announced officially?
Council members could not agree on publishing them, so the presidency announces nothing beyond the fact that a poll took place. No official record is kept and the ballots are shredded.
How many African candidates are in the race?
Two of the seven: Macky Sall of Senegal and Olara Otunnu of Uganda. Five candidates come from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Is the Macky Sall UN bid over?
No. His team says no decision is settled and is counting on later rounds of consultation in the Security Council to shift the picture.
Connected Coverage
We first covered the campaign when Macky Sall sought Senegal’s backing in Dakar, and our Latin America desk reported the other half of this story as Costa Rica’s Grynspan led the first UN straw poll. The wider contest for influence on the continent runs through Africa: The New Scramble.
Sources: Reporting on the leaked outcome of the 30 July straw poll.
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