Survey reveals Patricia Scotland to regain position of Commonwealth Secretary-General

A survey conducted by an UK based firm revealed that Patricia Scotland would retain her position as the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the CHOGM in Rwanda. The reason behind this is considered the popularity of Scotland among the member states of Commonwealth.

Three candidates are running for the title – Patricia Scotland, Kamina Johnson Smith, and Iakoba Taeia Italeli. Detailed research was carried out throughout the 54 states of the Commonwealth, which elects the Secretary-General for a term of 4 years.

The survey findings further reveal that the Jamaican candidate – Kamina Johnson Smith failed to gain support despite visiting several Commonwealth nations, whereas people want and are in support of Scotland to hold her position for another term.

It is notable that Scotland engraved her name in history by becoming the first-ever woman to hold the position of Commonwealth Secretary and breaking the chains of gender-biased thinking.

The experts further noted that Scotland is the ‘perfect’ candidate for the appointment of the Secretary-General.

Appointment of Commonwealth Secretary

The leaders of the Commonwealth countries will come together on June 24, 2022, and vote to choose the next Secretary-General at the  Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which is currently going on in Kigali, Rwanda. The meeting started on June 20 and will end on June 25.

Previously the meeting to chose CSG was planned to be held in 2020 but were postponed following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The previous weeks went quite controversial, igniting debate between Scotland and Smith – the two running candidates for the position.

As per the reports, Scotland asked Smith to withdraw her name from the candidate list to become the next Commonwealth Secretary-General. During an interview with a media house, Scotland also revealed that she is hopeful for the results, which are likely to be on her side.

On one end, where Scotland is getting support from the Commonwealth members, there are also some dignitaries who are against her. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and leader of the conservative party, Boris Johnson, clearly does not want Scotland to retain her position. It is believed that the reason behind this is the political history of Scotland, who earlier served as a minister in the Labour Party of Britain.

The rivalry between the two parties is the prime reason behind PM Johnson standing not in support of Scotland.

More about Patricia Scotland

Patricia gained the position of Commonwealth Secretary-General in 2016 and served for nearly six years. It is no denying that under her supervision, the Commonwealth states were able to enhance several skills. Moreover, her bid to run for the position was supported by the Commonwealth member states.

Tomorrow is the day when a revelation will be made of the new Commonwealth Secretary-General, deciding the fate of all the three candidates.