Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago nationals shortlisted for ACP top post

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Three candidates from Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica have been short listed for the post of secretary general of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping.

Informed sources said Guyana’s Brussels-based ambassador to the ACP, Dr PI, Gomes, Jamaica’s Patricia Francis, the former executive director of the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Dr Hamid Ghany, a political scientist and senior lecturer at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) have been shortlisted for the post.

St Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti and Suriname had also named candidates for the top ACP post.

Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett is quoted by the DemeraraWaves website here as saying she is “happy that the process has advanced for selecting the Secretary General of the ACP”.

The website also quoted Suriname’s candidate Rabin Parmessar as saying the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country would have preferred just one candidate named for the post.

“It’s time for the Caribbean region to show their teeth. It is our term to appoint a SG for the ACP, and we have opposed to the idea to name three candidates for the ACP ministerial council to vote on, instead of just present one candidate,” he told the website.

Caribbean leaders are yet to publicly confirm the names of the shortlisted candidates, keeping the matter as a very closely guarded secret.

Caricom have until September 30 to present three final candidates for the position and Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Rocque, speaking at the end of the summit of regional leaders in Antigua in July, noted that a process is being led by the ACP with regards to the selection of a candidate.