United Nations: The stage is set for South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon to be elected as the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The 15-member powerful Security Council is expected to nominate him unanimously on Monday morning and the 192-member General assembly is to endorse him within a week thereafter.
Ban will be second Asian Secretary General of the 61-year-old organisation after U Thant of Burma, who had taken over on November 30, 1961 following the death of Dag Hammskjold in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and held the office until December 31, 1971.
Right from the day he announced his intention to run for the top UN post, 62-year-old Ban had never looked back and won in every straw poll with impressive margins.
And five of his six challengers, including Indian nominee Shashi Tharoor, withdrew after the fourth and decisive straw poll when it became clear that they had no chance as he had full support of all five veto wielding permanent members.
The sixth, Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, had withdrawn after the first three straw polls placed him at the bottom.
Ban had worked with at least three permanent members -- the United States, Russia and China -- as also with powerful non permanent member Japan who had been his partners in the six-party talks aimed at resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. Thus, he was not a stranger to most of the Council members.
Apparently his style and competence impressed the major world powers, which considered him to be most suitable Asian candidate with whom they could do business.
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