Election
Since the 1993 CHOGM, it has been decided that the Secretary-General is elected to a maximum of two four-year terms. The election is held by the assembled Heads of Government and other ministerial representatives at every other CHOGM. Nominations are received from the member states' governments, who sponsor the nomination through the election process and are responsible for withdrawing their candidate as they see fit.
The election is held in a Restricted Session of the CHOGM, in which only Heads of Government or ministerial representatives thereof may be present. The Chair of the CHOGM (the Head of Government of the host nation) is responsible for ascertaining which candidate has the greatest support, through the conduct of negotiations and secret straw polls.
There is usually a convention that an incumbent seeking a second term in office is elected unopposed for his or her second term. However, this was broken by a Zimbabwe-backed bid for Sri Lankan Lakshman Kadirgamar to displace New Zealand's Don McKinnon in 2003. At the vote, however, Kadirgamar was easily defeated by McKinnon, with only 11 members voting for him against 40 for McKinnon.
In the most recent election, at the 2011 CHOGM, India's Kamalesh Sharma was re-elected to his second term unopposed. Sharma had won the position at the 2007 CHOGM, when he defeated Malta's Michael Frendo to replace McKinnon, who had served the maximum two terms.
Read more about this topic: Commonwealth Secretary-General
Famous quotes containing the word election:
“Savages cling to a local god of one tribe or town. The broad ethics of Jesus were quickly narrowed to village theologies, which preach an election or favoritism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“[If not re-elected in 1864] then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The election makes me think of a story of a man who was dying. He had only two minutes to live, so he sent for a clergyman and asked him, “Where is the best place to go to?” He was undecided about it. So the minister told him that each place had its advantages—heaven for climate, and hell for society.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)