United Nations Secretary-General selection, 1996

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19 November 1996 – 13 December 1996

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Candidate	Kofi Annan	Amara Essy	Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Country	Ghana	Ivory Coast	Egypt
Best vote	14 / 15	11 / 15	14 / 15
Vetoes	None
Round	Final closed session 13 December 1996	First open straw poll 10 December 1996	First closed session 19 November 1996

UN Secretary-General before election

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Elected UN Secretary-General

Kofi Annan

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Kofi Annan

A United Nations Secretary-General selection was held in 1996 at the end of Boutros Boutros-Ghali's first term. Boutros-Ghali ran unopposed for a second term and received the support of 14 of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council. However, the United States vetoed his re-selection and eventually forced him to withdraw his candidacy.

The open selection then deadlocked as France vetoed all candidates from English-speaking countries, while the United States vetoed all candidates from French-speaking countries. France eventually changed its veto to an abstention, and Kofi Annan of Ghana was selected Secretary-General for a term beginning 1 January 1997. The 1996 selection marks the only time that a sitting Secretary-General was denied a second term.

The elderly Boutros-Ghali initially intended to serve only one term, but he ran for a second term in 1996. Traditionally, the Secretary-General is entitled to run unopposed for a second term. No sitting Secretary-General had ever been denied a second term by a veto. In the 1950 selection, Trygve Lie was vetoed by the Soviet Union, but he was re-appointed by the General Assembly without a recommendation from the Security Council. In the 1976 selection, Kurt Waldheim received a single symbolic veto from China, which turned around and voted for him in the second round.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali had been selected Secretary-General in 1991 without the support of the United States, which abstained. After 15 U.S. peacekeepers died in a failed raid in Somalia in 1993, Boutros-Ghali became a political scapegoat in the United States. U.S. ambassador Madeleine Albright criticized Boutros-Ghali for the failed raid, and U.S. president Bill Clinton announced that future U.S. peacekeepers "will be under American command." However, the dead peacekeepers had already been under U.S. command.

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