According to the British weekly magazine the Economist, the new head of United Nations in 2016 elections may come from Slovakia for the first time in history.
The magazine sees the hottest candidates to replace the current UN leader, Ban Ki Moon, in the present Foreign affairs minister Miroslav Lajčák, and his predecessor Jan Kubis, who at the moment is the UN’s top official in Afghanistan and was formerly secretary general of the OSCE. UN Secretary Generals serve five-year terms and are appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council, which means that the five permanent Security Council members essentially have vetoing power. The upcoming elections are to be held in 2016. Most observers expect the choice will come from a post-communist state as well. In addition to Jan Kubiš and Miroslav Lajčák, Danilo Türk, a former president of Slovenia, and Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian who now heads UNESCO, are frequently named contenders. But on the sidelines of an international security conference in Bratislava, it’s the Slovak diplomats are generating buzz, concludes the Economist.
