Tharoor 2nd in straw poll for UN top job

United Nations: India's nominee Shashi Tharoor came in second again to South Korea's Ban Ki Moon in another informal straw poll for the United Nations top job, but with an additional negative vote this time.

Tharoor, currently UN undersecretary-general for public affairs, got 10 positive votes in Thursday's informal poll in the race to choose the secretary general at the Security Council.

This time he got three negative votes with two expressing no opinion.

He had got 10 positive votes, two negative votes and three with no opinion in the last straw poll on July 24.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, on the other hand, picked up two more votes to win support from 14 of the 15 Security Council members in the process to choose a successor to Kofi Annan at the end of the year.

The lead of the South Korean candidate is now thought by many diplomats to be unassailable unless the lone "no" vote in the secret ballot came from one of the council's five veto powers; Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.

Even then, it would be hard for the hold out not to bow to the groundswell of support among other council members.

A "no" vote from one of the five veto-wielding permanent Security Council members sinks a candidacy. Candidates can come forward until the last minute, and the final vote is not expected until October.

In third place was the Thai deputy prime minister, Surakiart Sathirathai who received nine votes in favour and three against.

He was followed by the only new entry, Jordan's UN ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, who got six votes with four against.

In last place was Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, the former head of the UN's disarmament department, who received three votes with five against.

In Thursday's poll, the 15 council members checked one of three boxes for each candidate: "Encourage", "discourage" and "no opinion".

Under a prior agreement, a further straw poll is to be held Sep 28 under different rules that will make clear if a "no" vote comes from a veto power.

Once a consensus is reached, the Security Council will hold a formal vote and forward its candidate to be endorsed by the 192-member UN General Assembly.

According to UN convention, the next Secretary-General should come from Asia. Zeid, the only Muslim in the race, had received a favourable response from many diplomats when he announced his candidacy last week.

Still, there had been questions about whether Jordan can be considered a part of Asia, even though it is a member of the United Nations' Asian Group.

Annan is the seventh secretary general in the 61-year-history of the United Nations. A secretary general is selected for a five-year term but can be re-elected.

The Security Council selects a secretary general, who then has to be confirmed by the 192-member General Assembly.