VALLETTA – Britain’s former attorney general Baroness Patricia Scotland was elected secretary general of the Commonwealth yesterday, replacing the outgoing Indian former Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamalesh Sharma.
Baroness Scotland, who was nominated by Dominica for the post, was one of two Caribbean nationals seeking the top post within the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 53 independent countries and home to 2.2 billion citizens.
She was elected at the start of the Commonwealth summit here.
Her nomination for the post had divided the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping, with some countries openly supporting Sir Ronald Sanders, the Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador to the United States, who is reported to have withdrawn from the race after failing to past the first hurdle.
Up to last week, the Roosevelt Skerrit administration had insisted that the former British politician, who was born in Dominica in 1955 before moving to London with her family, would be its nominee even as the region called for support for a single candidate.
“Can I just say what a huge privilege and a pleasure for me to be entrusted with one of the most burdensome but wonderful roles there is in the international world today’s,” said Baroness Scotland, who served as attorney general in the United Kingdom from 2007-10.
There is no formal job description for the post. Nor is there a policy specifying that the post of secretary general should be rotated regionally, although candidates
must be citizens of Commonwealth countries. Only two terms of four years may now be served.
The last Caribbean national to serve as Commonwealth secretary general was Sir Shridath Ramphal, who was elected to the post in 1975 and served two terms.
Baroness Scotland told reporters that she was “born in one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean . . . and the greatest privilege I have had is to be asked by my country to take on this role”.
She said that the Commonwealth “has within it the ability to create something the world desperately needs” and that she was “proud” to be one of the candidates but the two other candidates . . . have much to offer”.
Apart from Sir Ronald, the other candidate was Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba of Botswana. (CMC)