Thursday, June 15 2006 15:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor is expected to be India's candidate for the post of the Secretary General of the world body.

India's Ambassador to the UN, Nirupam Sen, was quoted as saying by diplomats attending a closed door meeting of the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) yesterday that there is a likelihood of 50-year old Tharoor being endorsed by New Delhi as its candidate for the top post, in the next few days.

If elected, he will the be youngest Secretary-General of the world body.

Asked by reporters whether Islamabad will also be fielding a candidate, Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akarm replied, "We have also been giving serious consideration to field a candidate but no decision has yet been taken".

The names of both Akram and Prime Minister Shaukat Azizare being mentioned in this regard.

The Secretary-General is nominated by the 15-member Security Council and elected by the 191-member General Assembly. Kofi Annan retires on December 31 this year at the end of second term and the Council has already initiated the process selection process.

To be nominated by the Security Council, a candidate requires at least nine of the fifteen votes with no veto from five permanent members US, UK, Britain, France and China. But it is not necessary for a candidate to get affirmative votes of all five permanent members.

Till date, the General Assembly had mostly endorsed the candidate sent by the Council by acclamation and without vote.

The three candidates for the post declared so far are Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirthai of Thailand and Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon of South Korea.



The closed-door meeting of the NAM was called to discuss the process of election of the Secretary-General. An Indian initiated proposal would have called on the Council to send three names instead of one for the top executive post of the world body to enable Assembly to select one. But diplomats said the indication now is that India would not take a lead in moving the proposal.

Tharoor is the highest ranking Indian in the United Nations and very familiar with the UN system having joined the world body in 1978 and worked his way up.

He has done PhD from the prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tuffs University of the United States and has authored several novels including a political satire 'The Great Indian Novel'.