site.btaMedia Reports Tip EU Vice President Kristalina Georgieva as the Next Candidate for UN Secretary General

Media Reports Tip EU Vice President Kristalina Georgieva as the Next Candidate for UN Secretary General

Sofia, September 10 (BTA) - In the coming days Bulgaria is likely to support a possible nomination of European Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva for UN Secretary General, dnevnik.bg and other news outlets report quoting undisclosed government sources. The said sources say, though, that the government has not yet found a suitable formula for doing this.

The Bulgarian candidate in the race for the top position at the UN, Irina Bokova, received seven votes of encouragement, five of discouragement and three of no opinion at the Friday ballot.

According to a British diplomatic source quoted by Reuters, the absolute minimum that a candidate needs is nine positive votes and no vetoes, so any candidate that is some way off that minimum is not going to win this race.

A fifth vote is due on September 26 and in October the Security Council must make a final decision about who to propose to the UN General Assembly.

According to various media reports, Kristalina Georgieva may be nominated by three central European countries supported by Germany. According to the chief of the New York Bureau of Al-Arabia, Talal Al-Haj, a nomination of Georgieva is expected in the coming days from Hungary, Latvia and Croatia. None of the four has its own candidate in the race and Talal Al-Haj says that the uniting formula is a candidate of the European People's Party. The Al-Arabia journalist is further quoted as saying that this plan was finalized in the corridors of the recent G20 meeting in China.

Dnevnik.bg believes that it makes sense for the government to officially express support for Georgieva early next week because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives on a visit here September 13-14 and the final details will be decided during the talks with him.

A source of Dnevnik.bg says that Bokova has a chance to pull out of the race on Tuesday or Wednesday so that Bulgaria can make a second official nomination. If this does not happen, the government will go for the option of supporting the central European nomination.

Kristalina Georgieva has never confirmed having any plans to run for UN Secretary General.