Caricom remains divided on Commonwealth SG post
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders will vote for “a candidate of their choice” when Commonwealth leaders meet in Rwanda next month to choose the next Commonwealth secretary general, Caricom Chairman John Briceno announced on Tuesday.
Earlier this week, Jamaica apparently scuttled any attempt by the 15-member Caricom grouping to have a consensus candidate for the position, with Kingston defending the decision to nominate its Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith for the post.
In April the Caribbean leaders issued a statement indicating that they were still divided in their support for the two candidates — including the incumbent Baroness Patricia Scotland — for the position, agreeing instead to appoint a subcommittee to delve further into the matter.
Caricom did not announce a date as to when the regional subcommittee of leaders would meet with the two Caribbean candidates for the post.
Scotland was elected to the post at the Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta in 2015 and her re-election is scheduled to take place during the June 20-25 Commonwealth summit.
The Dominican-born Scotland is the second secretary general from the Caribbean and the first woman to hold the post.
In his statement, Briceno, who is the prime minister of Belize, said that the election of the Commonwealth secretary general will take place during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which takes place June 20 to 25 in Kigali, Rwanda.
“The conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community maintains that it is still the turn of the Caribbean to provide a candidate for the position.
“In that regard, two candidates from the Caribbean Community have been nominated for the post… [and] member states of the community will vote for the candidate of their choice,” Briceno said.
Last month, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he remains “very confident” that Scotland would be re-elected
“and at the end of the day countries have to vote, and we know how elections run”.
“We are very confident that she can go through but we would not want to have any divisive, contentious elections. If you go into this divisive approach, whoever becomes victorious will have a difficulty in properly functioning in that office,” Skerrit said, adding “We are not at war with Jamaica, we are not at odds with Jamaica.”
But Jamaica said it was necessary to point out that the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which governs the regional integration movement, “aspires towards coordination of foreign policy, including candidatures for positions in external forums, as far as practicable.
“It does not mandate harmonisation and acknowledges, therefore, the sovereign decisions of member states. Jamaica’s decision was made not only within the latitude in the Caricom treaty, but more importantly by virtue of its conviction that the leadership being offered would be in the interest of the Commonwealth.”