SOURCE: CMC — Antigua and Barbuda has described as a “monumental error” the decision by Jamaica to announce the nomination of its Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Kamina Johnson Smith, for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General, Barbados Today reported on August 2.
Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that “Jamaica was party to a recent Caribbean Community (Caricom) consensus endorsing the re-election of Baroness (Patricia) Scotland” for the position, adding, “I think Jamaica’s proposed candidature for Commonwealth Secretary General is a monumental error, which could only serve to divide the Caribbean”.
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has not yet commented on the Jamaica position, which was announced late on Friday night. Scotland is a Dominican-born national, whom Skerrit had again backed for re-election.
At the end of their Inter-sessional summit held in Belize last month, Caricom leaders issued their communique in which they “expressed their overwhelming support for the re-election of Baroness Patricia Scotland as Secretary-General of The Commonwealth”.
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 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Scotland is the second Secretary-General from the Caribbean and the first woman to hold the post. See complete Barbados Today article at https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/04/02/caricom-split-on-jamaicas-nomination-for-post-of-commonwealth-secretary-general/
