The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held its first straw poll Thursday to assess candidates seeking to replace Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose second term is set to conclude at the end of the year.

Speaking to reporters after the closed-door informal vote, Zenon Mukongo Ngay, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s UN ambassador and current SC president, said the results would be communicated to the ambassadors of the countries that nominated candidates as well as to the General Assembly president.

Ngay declined to disclose the results publicly, saying this is done to keep the process confidential and avoid speculation.

“The thinking behind [it] is to keep everything close, and we want transparency at the same time, [and] efficiency, but we don’t want speculations on that,” he said.

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Asked whether withholding the results is compatible with transparency, Ngay said the procedure was a decision of the SC rather than his own.

He added that the date of the next straw poll had not yet been decided and would take place under Denmark’s SC presidency next month.

Seven candidates are currently in the running, including International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, former UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, former Senegalese President Macky Sall, UN Trade and Development Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan, former General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Guyana’s UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, and former UN official Olara Otunnu of Uganda.

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Under the process, a candidate must secure at least nine votes in the 15-member council without facing a veto from any of its five permanent members – the US, Russia, China, Britain, or France – before being recommended to the General Assembly.

The next secretary-general is expected to be selected between September and December and to begin a five-year term on January 1.