BULGARIA’S IRINA BOKOVA WITH THE FIFTH HIGHEST RESULT IN THE RACE FOR THE UN TOP JOB

The Bulgarian candidate for UN Secratry-General was ranked sixth with the fifth highest result in the fifth straw poll, which was held on 26th of September. She received 6 encourage, 7 discourage and 2 no opinion votes.

Portugal’s former Prime Minister and former head of the UN Commission for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, again leads the UN vote, BNT special envoy in New York, Irina Tsoneva, said. He received 12 encourage, 2 discourage and 1 no opinion votes.

Second was Serbia’s Vuk Jeremic, with 8 encourage votes, 6 discourage and one no opinion vote.

Third was Slovakia’s candidate Miroslav Lacjak, with 8 encourage votes, 7 discourage votes and zero no opinions.

Former Slovenian President Danilo Turk and Argentinian Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra tied for fourth with 7 encourage, 7 discourage and 1 no opinion votes, followed by the Bulgarian Irina Bokova who is the Director-General of Unesco, the UN education and cultural organisation.

The next were the former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who heads the UN Development Programme and former Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim, who tied for sixth.

Moldova's former Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman came in last.

There were speculations over the past month that Bulgaria might put forward EU budget Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva as the candidate for the UN top job.

Earlier in September, Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borissov said that he would wait to see how Bokova did in the fifth ballot, but if she did not come first or second after Monday's vote, he would gather the government to make a joint decision on the future of Bulgaria’s candidacy.

According to opinions of diplomats in the UN there is pressure both from Russia and the United States.

The winner in the race for the next UN Secretary-General to succeed Ban Ki-moon will become clear by the end of October.