THE twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago will be voting for Jamaica’s Kamina Johnson Smith for the post of Commonwealth secretary general when the election is held in June in Rwanda.

Addressing a media briefing on Sunday, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Keith Rowley announced his country’s position days after Caricom Chairman John Briceno indicated that the regional grouping was unable to arrive at a unified position in the race that should boil down to Jamaica’s Johnson Smith and the incumbent Baroness Patricia Scotland.

In a terse release Briceno had noted that, “two candidates from the Caribbean Community have been nominated for the post, and member states of the community will vote for the candidate of their choice”.

While some Caricom countries have already indicated that they will vote for Scotland, others have quietly lined up behind Johnson Smith, with Rowley the first to go public with his country’s support for the Jamaican.

According to Rowley, Trinidad and Tobago was never in agreement with the decision to have Scotland representing the region as secretary general of the Commonwealth when she was elected in Malta in 2015 — and that position has not changed.

“It was our turn to be afforded the chairmanship but when that came about in the Malta meeting, Caricom supported an individual who — while being Caribbean by birth having spent two years here — in fact had lived all her useful life in the United Kingdom, had risen to the level of attorney general of the United Kingdom, and had in fact become a baroness in the British Parliament.

“It was always the position of Trinidad and Tobago that such a person was not really a representative of Caricom to represent us when it was our turn to lead. That position was not shared by our other colleagues, however the election did have Caricom’s support,” said Rowley.

He added that now that the election is due, Trinidad and Tobago’s position remains that Scotland was not really a representative of the region and, with the twin-island republic having only one vote, it is clear where this will be placed.

“It is Trinidad and Tobago’s position that we will remain consistent and therefore our support for one of the Caricom candidates will be in support of Minister Kamina Johnson Smith, the foreign minister of Jamaica who is representing one of the Caricom possibilities, going forward,” declared Rowley.

Johnson Smith’s endorsement from Trinidad and Tobago came days after the United Kingdom announced that it has thrown its support behind her.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the announcement in a tweet last Thursday.

“With a month to go until the Commonwealth comes together in Rwanda, delighted to confirm the UK will support @kaminajsmith’s campaign to be the next secretary general. She has the vast experience & support to unite our unique family of nations and seize the opportunities ahead,” Johnson tweeted.

But Dominica, which nominated Scotland for a second term, said it remains “very confident” that she will be re-elected.

“We are very confident that she can go through but we would not want to have any divisive, contentious elections. If you go into this divisive approach, whoever becomes victorious will have a difficulty in properly functioning in that office,” said Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt.

The 54-member Commonwealth will vote for its next secretary general during the Heads of Government meeting scheduled for June 20 to 25 in Kigali, Rwanda.