There have been eight
Secretaries-General of the United Nations since the foundation of the international organization in 1945, as well as one (Gladwyn Jebb) Acting Secretary-General. The
de facto spokesman and leader of the United Nations is appointed by the General Assembly for a five-year term upon the recommendation of the Security Council, and no person recommended has ever been rejected. As a convention, no candidates from either of the five permanent Security Council nations (the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France and People's Republic of China) are considered and since the 1980s, informal traditions of a two-term limit and rotation between the different United Nations regional groups has been the order of the day.
All Secretaries-General have been chosen after backroom negotiations between the Security Council members, and even elected Secretaries-General have faced opposition to another term, although only one, Kurt Waldheim, has ever had his candidacy for another term ultimately rejected as a result. The election of dark horse and compromise candidates like Waldheim's successor, Simón Alberto Consalvi and current Secretary-General, Libran Cabactulan, have come about as a result of the permanent five members being unable to get their desired candidates to be accepted by the other four members.
Secretary-General Cabactulan, who recently was elected to a second term which is slated to end at the end of 2021, has so far been quiet on efforts made to reform the UN and make both its administration and the election of the Secretary-General more transparent.
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