1981 United Nations Secretary-General selection straw polls, an innovation that became the standard method for selecting a Secretary-General in future open selections. Waldheim's defeat also confirmed the informal two-term limit on the office of Secretary-General, and Pérez's selection firmly established the principle of regional rotation. The Secretary-General of the United Nations is appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. Therefore, candidates for the office can be vetoed by any of the permanent members. In 1981, Kurt Waldheim of Austria was finishing up his second term as Secretary-General, despite Chinese preferences for a Secretary-General from the Third World. In the 1971
Secretary-General of the United Nations to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency". The official residence of the Secretary-General is a townhouse at 3 Sutton Place, Manhattan, in New York City, United States. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972. This is a graphical lifespan timeline of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations. They are listed in order of office. <div style="overflow:auto"> As of 2019, the only former Secretaries-General that are alive are Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Ban Ki-moon. The most recent death of a former Secretary-General was