Portugal’s former PM Antonio Guterres in UN hot seat

Portugal’s former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres was on Thursday appointed as the next secretary-general of the United Nations by the General Assembly.

The 193 member states of the General Assembly adopted the resolution by acclamation, appointing 67-year-old Guterres as the 9th UN secretary-general to take over from Ban Ki-moon, whose tenure will end on December 31.

The 15-nation UN Security Council had last week voted for Mr Guterres.

Mr Guterres, who was Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, and the UN high commissioner for refugees from June 2005 to December 2015, will assume his new role on January 1, 2017, for a five-year term that can be renewed by member states for an additional five years.

Mr Guterres had emerged as the front-runner in all the six informal polls conducted in the Council to select the secretary-general amid a heightened call by several UN member states and civil society organisations to elect a woman chief for the world body.