Former Senegalese President Macky Sall has withdrawn from the race to become the next United Nations (UN) secretary-general, a day after an informal United Nations Security Council poll failed to produce a clear frontrunner.

Sall announced his withdrawal in a statement posted on social media on Saturday, saying he had taken note of the poll results and hoped to contribute to the emergence of a consensus candidate within the Security Council.

He added that the results of the different rounds of voting suggested a preference for a candidate, possibly a woman, from the Latin America and Caribbean region.

A UN diplomat disclosed on Friday that all seven candidates in the race had received at least one “discourage” vote from a permanent member of the 15-member Security Council during the informal ballot.

Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, who had emerged as one of the frontrunners in five previous polls, secured the highest number of “encourage” votes but also received five “discourage” votes, including two from permanent members.

US media reports indicated that Washington opposed all seven candidates.

Meanwhile, diplomats have identified other potential contenders who could enter the race, including Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under the US-backed Board of Peace, and Lana Nusseibeh, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for foreign affairs.

Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu, secretary-general of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, has also been mentioned as a possible contender.

Other candidates in the race include Guyana’s former foreign minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett; Rafael Grossi of Argentina, who heads the UN nuclear watchdog; Ecuador’s Ivonne A-Baki and Maria Fernanda Espinosa; and Uganda’s Olara Otunnu.

The outgoing secretary-general, António Guterres of Portugal, is scheduled to complete his second five-year term on December 31.

Under the selection process, a candidate must secure at least nine votes from the 15-member Security Council and avoid a veto from any of its five permanent members.

The five permanent members are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, whose divisions could complicate efforts to reach a consensus on Guterres’ successor.