Portugal's Antonio Guterres Chosen as UN Secretary General

None of the five Security Council veto powers voted against the former prime minister of Portugal in a sixth secret ballot on Wednesday, diplomats said.

The 15-member council cast secret ballots for each of the 10 candidates with the choices of "encourage," "discourage" or "no opinion." Guterres received 13 "encourage" votes and two "no opinion" votes.

"Today after our sixth straw poll we have a clear favourite and his name is Antonio Guterres," Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters with his 14 council colleagues standing behind him.

Guterres, who served as the UN's refugee chief until last December, led all five previous polls.

"We have decided to go to a formal vote tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, and we hope it can be done by acclamation," said Churkin, who is council president for October, the Associated Press reported. 

For Guterres to be formally recommended to the 193-member General Assembly for election, the Security Council still needs to adopt a resolution behind closed doors. The resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes to pass.

If approved, he will replace Ban Ki-moon, who steps down in January.