Patricia Scotland retains her position as Commonwealth Secretary General

Patricia Scotland retained her position as Commonwealth Secretary-General during voting at Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday. She left behind Jamaica Kamina Johnson Smith and Tuvalu's Iakoba Italeli by receiving the majority of the 54-member commonwealth leaders.

Scotland received 27 votes, followed by 23 votes for Kamina Johnson. The elections were postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Scotland already serving her first term of six years instead of four. Even though India, the United Kingdom, Belize, and Jamaica had supported Smith's candidature, Scotland's hard work over six years has managed her to secure another term.

Born in Dominica, Scotland was the country's candidate for the Commonwealth Secretary General at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta in 2015. She became the first woman and second person from the Caribbean to assume the office.

She also made history by becoming Britain's first black Attorney General from 2007 to 2010.

During her tenure Patricia Scotland had been a voice for Commonwealth countries; she has been very vocal about Small Island Developing States and their vulnerability to climate change.

The official inauguration of the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held under the theme "Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming," was placed today in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world and caused the summit to be postponed by two years, presidents, prime ministers, and their representatives from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Europe gathered in person at the Kigali Conference Centre. Additionally, it is the first CHOGM to take place in Africa since Uganda in 2007.

Prince of Wales- Charles in his capacity as the head of the Commonwealth, The Prince of Wales emphasised the importance Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II places on the shared friendship, humanity, and the values of the Commonwealth.