ROSEAU, Dominica, – Leaders Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have agreed they will be backing one candidate for the post of Commonwealth Secretary General when elections are held in Malta later this month.
The decision to make a choice between Baroness Patricia Scotland, the Dominica-born former attorney general in Britain, and Antigua’s Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders – by next week – was taken at the just ended OECS Summit in Dominica.
A vote will be held during the November 27-29 Commonwealth Heads of Government conference to choose a successor to former Indian foreign minister Kamalesh Sharma.
And OECS chairman, Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell of Grenada, who has publicly backed Sir Ronald, said yesterday that having a single candidate would increase the region’s chances of winning.
“We can, in fact, increase that possibility if we send a message that we are unified around one candidate,” he told the media at the end of the summit.
“It was agreed among the heads, that given that the two possible candidates this time are OECS citizens, that the leadership of both countries involved will meet and that by the time we leave here next week we will be going to the meeting with one recommendation coming from the Caribbean region.
“We believe that is absolutely necessary. It makes no sense going there with two candidates, reducing the possibility and having ourselves eclipsed because of the lack of a unified effort around a particular candidate,” he added.
At the opening of the two-day meeting which ended yesterday, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris had urged leaders to settle on candidate.
Meantime, Mitchell said the heads had also agreed on the need to establish a single health space within the OECS.
