UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gestures during a news conference at the Conference on the Prevention of Violent Extremism at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, April 8, 2016.

For the first time in the 70-year history of the United Nations, all the member states will get a chance to question the candidates for Secretary-General, in a move to make the usually secret selection process for the world’s top diplomatic post more transparent.

Last year, the UN General Assembly responded to the strong demand from many countries that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s successor be chosen in a more open process, unanimously adopting a resolution allowing public hearings on how candidates would respond to global crises and run the UN’s far-flung bureaucracy.

The secretary-general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council.

But General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft says the two-hour public discussions with each of the eight candidates, starting Tuesday, are “potentially game-changing.”

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