Informal comments to the media by Zénon Mukongo Ngay, Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of July 2026, on the election of the next Secretary-General.
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Good afternoon. Hello. The first round of straw poll has taken place. The candidates will be informed of the results through their respective permanent representatives of nominating member states. The President of the General Assembly will also be informed that the straw poll has been conducted. I thank you very much.
Ambassador, is it possible for us to see a blank ballot? Can you show us what the ballot looks like? What does the straw poll look like visually?
I know you're not going to give us the numbers.
No, I'm not going to give you the numbers. What I can say is that the straw poll has 2, 3 steps on the paper. You have encouraged, discouraged, and non-opinion. So you mark whatever you want to mark. And we have the results after going through all the members of the Security Council.
Mr. Ambassador, did the Security Council Did you decide when the next straw poll will take place?
We did not decide today, but in the days to come we will know exactly. But that will be under the presidency of Denmark because we are going to conclude our presidency tomorrow. So you will know on time.
What is the rationale that the Security Council is not releasing the results? What's the thinking behind that?
The thinking behind it is to keep everything closed, And we want transparency at the same time, efficiency, but we don't want speculations on that.
But you can't have it both ways. You can't say you want transparency and then not release the results.
Yeah, because that feeds speculation.
But this is what the Security Council has decided. I'm just reporting. I'm just serving. I'm not the one who took the decision.
What's your view as a representative of your nation on the whole process?
I cannot express my view as a representative of Democratic Republic of Congo. I'm acting here as the Security Council President.
How many rounds of voting went on today? Was it just one?
How many rounds? Yes. Just one round.
How are the women candidates doing?
Everybody is doing well. Thank you very much.
