The Security Council opened private consultations on 30 June, and indicative votes are expected in the last week of July. For this decisive month in the race for the next UN Secretary-General, President Macky Sall has chosen one method: dialogue with member states.
That method rests on a record. As Chair of the African Union in 2022, through the war in Ukraine and the food crisis it triggered, he carried the continent's demand for a permanent seat at the G20; the African Union joined in 2023. In June 2022 he went to Sochi to press for the resumption of grain and fertilizer exports on which the continent depended. He has long championed the reallocation of Special Drawing Rights and the reform of the global financial architecture. His exchanges with member states cover multilateralism, UN reform and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
Senegal is part of these consultations. On 14 July, President Macky Sall announced he would travel to Dakar on Friday 17 July as part of the consultations and visits related to his candidacy, to be received by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
The next milestone comes on 23 July, when all candidates will address member states and civil society in the General Assembly Hall, at the initiative of General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock. President Macky Sall will present his vision: a United Nations recentred on its Charter, effective in its operations, attentive to every region.
Before proposing, the candidate listens: a Secretary-General serves the member states, and President Macky Sall begins that service before the vote, consulting capitals region by region. After the July votes, the Council will recommend a candidate to the General Assembly. António Guterres's term ends on 31 December 2026; his successor takes office on 1 January 2027.