SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
History is being made at the United Nations at present with contenders aiming to become the next UN Secretary General by making their pitch in front of the General Assembly.
The selection process is also being live streamed via the UN site. The question of who’ll succeed Ban Ki-moon is something of a momentous occasion as the South Korean has occupied the position since January 1st 2007 when he replaced Kofi Annan.
Ladbrokes has opened a market on who will become the ninth UN Secretary General, and Irina Bokova is the 2/1 favourite. Should she win it’ll be even more of a momentous occasion as Bokova would become the first woman to hold the position. The 63 year old Bulgarian is the current Director General of UNESCO.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark is second on the list at odds of 3/1.
Matthew Shaddick, Head of Political Betting at Ladbrokes, had this to say on the matter: “Looking at the analysis from UN-watchers, two things were clear. It was seen as being Eastern Europe’s turn to have a go (although there is no formal geographical rotations policy) and that a lot of people think that a female Secretary-General is overdue. The other main factor seems to be how Russia feels about the East Europeans on the list and the suspicion that they might try to block anyone who isn’t sufficiently friendly towards Moscow.”
He continued: “We based our opening odds on those three factors but, as it happens, the best backed runner this morning has been Helen Clark, although that may be because she is the only one on the list who anyone from the UK is likely to have heard of.”
Other candidates include Vesna Pusic, Natalia Gherman, Antonio Guterres, one of Slovenia’s founding fathers Danilo Turk, Srgjan Kerim and former Prime Minister of Montenegro Igor Luksic.
Each of the candidates will have had a chance to present their case between 12th and 14th April, and the successor to Ban Ki-moon will be announced on the evening of April 14th. They’ll take office from January 1st 2017.
The ultimate decision is that of the UN General Assembly, with a recommendation by the UN Security Council playing a key role.
