It's not an election, it's a selection. And although all the countries in the United Nations General Assembly have equal rights, some are more equal than others.
Ban Ki-moon retires at the end of this year, and it's time for the United Nations to choose a new secretary-general. By the end of this year's session of the General Assembly in early October, we will know who it is. Which raises two questions: how do they make the choice, and why should anybody care?
The secretary-general of the United Nations is, in some senses, the highest official on the planet, but the selection process is hardly democratic. In fact, it has traditionally been a process as shrouded in secrecy as a papal conclave.