Who's Going to be the New Sect-Gen

Kofi Annan is due to complete his term at the Sect Gen of the UN at the end of this year, and candidates have already thrown their hat in the ring. The latest is India's own, Shashi Tharoor. At the moment, he's the Undersecretary for Communications and Public Information.

Along with Tharoor, are other more favored candidates from Thailand, South Korea, and Sri Lanka. Then theres Pakistan. Cos India now has a candidate, there are reports (and don't laugh!) Pervez himself may throw his hat in the ring.

A more realistic occurance, which has been widely reported in the local media here, is Pakistan influencing China to vote against any Indian candidate (permanent members make a final selction - complete with veto powers and everything - which is then put to the General Assembly). To this Tharoor has said, in his upper class Anglo accent, that China has a "sophisticated" view of the world and will not be influenced by other nations. Nice one.

What are his chances? Tharoor is widely regarded as an insider, someone who knows the UN system. He's worked under and is quite close to Anaan which many analysts regard as a negative.

Anyways, here's a couple of links about other possible candidates, by the UN, who also catagorise the potentials in terms of "The Candidates", "Serious Speculation", "Others Suggested", "Politically Remote" and "Populist Longshots"...
http://www.unsg.org/candidates.html

And Shashi Tharoors personal site...
http://www.shashitharoor.com