Security Council members will today, July 21, 2016 begin holding secret ballots to choose the candidate.

The 15-member Security Council of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) will today start holding informal secret ballots to choose a candidate to recommend to the UN General Assembly for the election of the new Secretary General to succeed Ban Ki-moon, BBC Afrique reported.  The process will continue till October 2016.

The new UN Secretary General will be elected later this year and will effectively take over from Ban Ki-moon in January 2017.  Ban Ki-moon will step down at the end of 2016 after two five-year terms following his election in 2006. The results of  the closed-door polls Security Council members will  begin doing will not be made public. Council members will be given a ballot for each candidate with the options of encourage, discourage and no opinion.

Reports say the council will tally the ballots and inform the nominating states of the results for their candidate.  The five nations that hold a veto on the security council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - have to agree on a candidate and there is no requirement for them to pay attention to the popularity of candidates with the General Assembly. The council hopes to agree on a candidate by October, diplomats reportedly say.

Twelve candidates are reportedly already vying to succeed Ban Ki-moon. Ten of the 12 candidates, Colombo Gazette reported, took part in live televised debates on Tuesday, July 12,  2016 a first for the world body. That transparency extended to two debates - with five candidates in each group - in the General Assembly which was reportedly broadcast live around the world on the Al Jazeera television network and on the U.N. website.