The race to see who will be Commonwealth Secretary-General has just kicked off and the Caribbean is choosing who its candidate will be among two exceptional women. It's forced the region hand to take a vote among its member states before the wider election next month when the commonwealth meets in Rwanda.
In Belize's case, that choice is between a Baroness who has lent us a major helping hand on the road to the ICJ, and a Jamaican Foreign Minister who is, by all accounts, very qualified for the role.
Well, we put the choice to the PM yesterday and he told us who Belize is backing and why:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"We are grateful to Baroness Scotland for the work, she came here for the ICJ and tried to help Belize so they helped us in trying to get some attorneys and judges through the commonwealth secretariat so we are grateful to her but at the moment when we started to look at both candidates Belize has decided that we are going to support foreign minister Camila Johnson Smith, why well, first of all, she has a wealth of experience. She has been a foreign minister for two, this is her second term. She is the leader of the government in the senate. She has cheered different committees worldwide. She is the leader in the Senate, she has cheered different committees worldwide. She, the vision that she has in working together that she can put countries to be able to work together where she is saying that no country can have development by itself there has to be cooperation between the other countries and the developing countries like ours. I believe that she represents what we believe that the commonwealth secretariat needs and that is why Belize will support foreign Minister Camila Johnson Smith."
The election for Commonwealth Secretary-General will take place in Kigali, Rwanda between the 20th and the 25th of June.
