Eleven members voted to “encourage” Guterres to continue in the race, two said they “have no opinion” and two voted to “discourage” him. That however represents a less positive result than in the first round of voting, on 21 July, where he also came out on top, and in which no country voted to discourage him.
Portugal’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, described the result as “extremely positive” and said that it showed that Guterres - a former UN High Commissioner for Refugees - is widely recognised as “a particularly well-qualified candidate” for the job.
There are currently 11 candidates to replace the incumbent, Ban Ki-moon, at the end of this year. Organisers of the process hope to announce a winner in the autumn.
In this second round of voting, one candidate surprised observers by doing markedly better than in the first round: Vuk Jeremic of Serbia, who received eight favourable votes but four negative ones, as well as three neutral.
Third was Susana Malcorra, of Argentina, with eight positive votes, six negatives and one neutral. The former Slovenian president Danilo Turk, who was second to Guterres in the first round, slipped to fourth place with seven positive votes, five negative and three neutral.
Irina Bokova, who meets the two informal requirements that have been mentioned by some in the race - being from Eastern Europe and being a woman - had a disappointing result, with seven countries voting to “discourage” her, the same number that voted to “encourage” her. Just one had “no opinion.
Behind her came Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand, followed by Miroslav Lajcak, from Slovakia, Christiana Figueres, of Costa Rica, Natalia Gherman, of Moldavia, and Igor Luksic, of Montenegro.
Vesna Pusic, of Croatia, pulled out of the race last Thursday, leaving six men and five women.