CRI听力:Portugal's Guterres poised to be next UN chief

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think you are witnessing a historic scene. I do not know it has ever been done this way in the history of the United Nations before."

Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, current president of the 15-member council for October, marveling at the latest poll which shows the former Prime Minister of Portugal is the favorite to take over for Ban Ki-moon.

"Today after our sixth straw poll we have a clear favorite and his name is Antonio Guterres. We have decided to go for the formal vote tomorrow morning at 10 and we hope it can be done by acclamation. We wish Mr. Guterres well in discharging his duties as the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the next five years."

The Security Council has been holding informal close-door ballots since July in a bid to reach consensus on a candidate.

Council members had the choices of encourage, discourage or no opinion.

Guterres has come out on top of all the polls, including the latest one on Wednesday with 13 encourage votes and two no opinion votes.

Under the UN Charter, the Security Council will adopt a resolution, recommending the nomination to the General Assembly for approval.

A total of 13 people were nominated in the race.

Three had already withdrawn before Wednesday's straw poll.

This year's race was also accompanied by several rounds of open auditions and debates, which were introduced into the process to make it more inclusive and transparent.

Guterres served as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015.

Before that, he was prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.

Current UN chief Ban Ki-moon will retire at the end of this year after serving out a two term mandate.