1981 United Nations Secretary-General selection 1981 United Nations Secretary-General selection A United Nations Secretary-General selection was held in 1981. Kurt Waldheim ran for an unprecedented third full term as Secretary-General, losing to Salim Ahmed Salim by one vote. However, the selection deadlocked through 16 rounds of voting as China vetoed Waldheim and the United States voted against Salim. The Security Council finally settled on a dark horse candidate who stayed home and did not campaign. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar was selected for a term beginning on 1 January 1982, becoming the first Secretary-General from Latin America. The deadlock was finally broken by a system of
Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General The Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General is a department of the United Nations that provides information to the news media regarding the activities of the U.N. as a whole. The department is in charge of managing media relations on behalf of: In 2012, the official United Nations Twitter account posted an erroneous tweet, implying that the U.N. Secretary-General supports a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The tweet was later found to have been written by spokesperson Nancy Groves, who attributed it to a "terrible typo". According to Reuters, the U.N.