Former prime minister Helen Clark is seventh in the third straw poll ranking the candidates to become the next United Nations Secretary-General, according to reports (Getty Images)

Clark's UN chances take another hit in straw poll

Author: NZN,
Publish Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2016, 8:50AM

UPDATED 9.48am: Former prime minister Helen Clark is seventh in the third straw poll ranking the candidates to become the next United Nations Secretary-General, according to reports.

She received six encourage votes in the poll in New York on Monday (US time) but also eight discourage and one no opinion votes.

The results, which are meant to be confidential, have been widely distributed on Twitter.

The polls follow earlier votes where she was ranked sixth and seventh.

Voice of America UN Correspondent Margaret Basheer said today's result is not at all what Miss Clark was after.

"She had the same exact numbers when we had a poll on the 1st of August, so the fact that she hasn't changed anyone's mind in the discourage column is going to be difficult to overcome now."

Only 10 candidates remain in the race after Croatia and Montenegro's hopefuls withdrew earlier in August.

Ahead of the poll's release Miss Clark tweeted her thanks to her supporters in New Zealand and around the world for backing her in her bid.

Prime Minister John Key is continuing to back Miss Clark, who he says could be a compromise candidate if the permanent five countries - the United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia - can't settle on one.

He revealed on Monday that he would make a further appeal to US President Barack Obama at the East Asia Summit in Laos next week if Miss Clark were to survive the poll.

John Key said there hasn't been extensive discussion about who New Zealand's second choice would be if Helen Clark withdraws.

"The focus has been solely on getting her there, and we don't intend to spend any time thinking about that unless we're forced to."

Former Portugese prime minister Antonio Guterres remains favourite to replace Ban Ki-Moon later this year, with Slovakian foreign minister Miroslav Lajcak moving up to second.

Miss Clark is in Cameroon, Africa in her capacity as head of the United Nations Development Fund.

Today's ranking based on highest number of "encourage" votes (followed by first-round then second-round rankings).

THIRD ROUND

1. Antonio Guterres, Portugal (1, 1)

2. Miroslav Lajcak, Slovakia (7, 10)

3= Irina Bokova, Bulgaria (3, 5)

3= Vuk Jeremic, Serbia (4, 2)

5. Susana Malcorra, Argentina (8, 3)

6. Srgjan Kerim, Macedonia (5, 6)

7. Helen Clark, New Zealand (6, 7)

8. Danilo Turk, Slovenia (2, 4)

9= Christiana Figueres, Costa Rica (9, 8)