Even if there weren’t two TEDsters in the running, we’d be keeping a close watch on the race to succeed Kofi Annan as U.N. Secretary General, when he steps down at year’s end. One in a series of informal votes takes place today at UN Headquarters. In today’s New York Times, an Op/ED piece titled Why I Should Run the U.N. (log-in required) poses two brief questions to each of the seven candidates, and five — including former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani (who spoke at TEDGlobal in 2005), and UN Under-secretary General Shashi Tharoor (who introduced the TEDPrize winners in 2005) — weighed in.

More on the candidates with this BBC primer.