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Pressure mounts on Dominica to withdraw Commonwealth candidate

Baroness Scotland and Sir Ronald Sanders.

Roseau, Dominica (TDN) Pressure continues to mount on Dominica’s prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit to withdraw the candidacy of Baroness Patricia Scotland for the post of Secretary General of the Commonwealth.

With elections only days away, leaders of the Organization of American Sates OECS meeting in Dominica last week made it clear that the Region needed to field only one candidate for the post.

Along with Dominica’s nomination, Antigua has nominated diplomat Sir Ronald Sanders for the prestigious post.

At the Dominica meeting, CARICOM Chairman Dr Keith Mitchell who has publicly backed Sir Sanders noted that: “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.

However, Dominica’s foreign affairs minister Francine Baron was less conciliatory stating “what has been decided is that the two countries from the Caribbean who have candidates will discuss the matter to see whether we can arrive at an agreement moving forward….As to whether there should be one candidate or not, and that does not mean that Dominica has agreed to withdraw its candidate, it simply means that there will be a discussion.”

Commonwealth Heads will meet in Malta on November 29 to select a new Secretary General and there is growing concern that the Region will miss an opportunity to have a Caribbean national elected if two candidates are put forward from the Region.

To date the governments of Antigua, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bahamas have all thrown their support behind Sir Sanders while Dominica and Barbados publicly favor Baroness Scotland.