Guterres leads race to replace Ban Ki-moon

Antonio Guterres, Portugal's ex-prime minister who was UN refugee chief for 10 years, led the closely watched first straw poll vote Thursday to pick the next UN secretary-general, diplomats said.

Slovenia's former president Danilo Turk came second in the secret vote by the UN Security Council to choose a successor to Ban Ki-moon.

The 15 ambassadors including those from the powerful five -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- each rated the candidates with ballots marked "encourage," "discourage" or "no opinion."

Guterres won the top score of 12 "encourage" votes with three "no opinion." Turk was close behind with 11 encouragements, two "discourage" votes and three "no opinion," according to diplomats.

Unesco chief Irina Bokova of Bulgaria received nine encouragements as did Serbia's ex-foreign minister Vuk Jeremic and Srgjan Kerim, Macedonia's former foreign minister.

New Zealand's former prime minister Helen Clark picked up eight encouragements but in a potential blow to her campaign, received five "discourage" votes. There are currently 12 candidates in the race, six of them women, but diplomats expect some to withdraw based on the result of the first round.

Croatia's former foreign minister Vesna Pusic received 11 discouragements from the council, the lowest score.

Moldova's Natalia Gherman, Montenegro's Igor Luksic, Argentina's Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra,  Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.  and former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica were among the bottom tier.