UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – "The Prime Minister of Portugal has today written to the Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council formally submitting the candidacy of Mr. Antonio Guterres for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations," the Permanent Mission of Portugal to the UN wrote in a February 29 letter.
According to the UN Charter, the UN Security Council recommends a candidate to the General Assembly, where he or she must garner no less than two-thirds of the votes to be appointed Secretary General.
Guterres joins a list of six mostly Eastern and Central European candidates to succeed Ban Ki-moon on January 1, 2017.
He served as Prime Minister in 1995-2002 and as UN Refugee Agency High Commissioner in 2005-2015.
