Four Africans said to vie for top U.N. post .
Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS 1996-12-06
Four African states are ready to nominate candidates for the post of U.N. secretary-general on Friday now that Boutros Boutros-Ghali has temporarily put aside his bid for re-election .
The nominees , according to diplomats , are : Kofi Annan of Ghana , the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping ; Ahmedou Ould Abdallah of Mauritania , the former U.N. special envoy for Burundi ; Amara Essy of the Ivory Coast , its foreign minister and the U.N. General Assembly president in 1994-95 ; and Hamid Algabid of Niger , the secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference .
Representatives of the U.N. missions of Ghana , the Ivory Coast , Mauritania and Niger have scheduled a meeting with Security Council president Paolo Fulci of Italy to hand in the nominations in writing , the envoys said .
It was not known if other candidates would step forward .
Diplomats said General Joseph Garba of Nigeria , a U.N. General Assembly president in 1989-90 , was putting forth his own candidacy without being nominated by his country .
Boutros-Ghali on Wednesday opened the door for other Africans to contest his job by saying he was suspending temporarily his candidacy but was not withdrawing completely from the race .
His supporters said this meant he remained a candidate in case the race reached an impasse .
The United States on Nov. 19 vetoed his bid for re-election while the other 14 Security Council members supported him .
The move by the African states means that the council could begin voting on candidates next week , a procedure that could either result in a decision or turn into a bitter fight with vetoes against each nominee .
The Security Council has to vote on a new secretary-general and then seek the endorsement of the 185-members General Assembly before December 31 when Boutros-Ghali 's term expires .