Commonwealth Chairperson-in-Office

Chairperson-in-Office of the Commonwealth
Incumbent Julia Gillard since 28 October 2011
Term length	2 years
Inaugural holder	Thabo Mbeki
Formation	12 November 1999

The Commonwealth Chairperson-in-Office (CIO) is the Chairperson-in-Office of the Commonwealth of Nations, and is one of the main leadership positions in the Commonwealth. It is held by the host chairperson of the previous Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), and is maintained until the next CHOGM.

The primary responsibility of the Chairperson-in-Office is to host the CHOGM, but their roles can be expanded. For example, after the 2002 CHOGM, the incumbent, previous, and next Chairpersons-in-Office formed a troika in an attempt to resolve the ongoing dispute over Zimbabwe's membership of the Commonwealth.^[1]

The position was created after the 1999 CHOGM, with Thabo Mbeki becoming the first Chairperson-in-Office. However, Mbeki did very little to develop the position, leaving it virtually vacant until the next CHOGM, in 2002, when the troika was created.^[1] Even after John Howard became Chairperson, the troika's first meeting was in London, in the presence of the Commonwealth Secretary-General, whose office drafted the troika's statement: leaving little role for the troika itself, but potentially increasing the power of the Secretary-General.^[1] The third Chairperson, Olusegun Obasanjo, did more to revive the role of the position after taking over in 2003.^[2]

Perhaps the most active Chairpersons have been the Prime Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning and Kamla Persad-Bissessar. For the first time, a single country produced two chairpersons for a single CHOGM, after Manning lost a snap general election he called more than two years before polls were due.

Since the assumption of the role at the 2009 CHOGM, representatives from Trinidad and Tobago, including the Prime Ministers, have attended Commonwealth meetings, including 2011 Commonwealth Day celebrations where Persad-Bissessar, the first female to chair the Commonwealth, gave the keynote address. Trinidad and Tobago is also slated to host the much anticipated Commonwealth Economic Forum in 2011.

As Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard succeeded Persad-Bissessar as the second female Chairman at the 2011 CHOGM.

List of Chairpersons-in-Office

	Name	Country	Title	CHOGM	Start	End
1st	Thabo Mbeki	South Africa	President	1999	12 November 1999	2 March 2002
2nd	John Howard	Australia	Prime Minister	2002	2 March 2002	5 December 2003
3rd	Olusegun Obasanjo	Nigeria	President	2003	5 December 2003	25 November 2005
4th	Lawrence Gonzi	Malta	Prime Minister	2005	25 November 2005	23 November 2007
5th	Yoweri Museveni	Uganda	President	2007	23 November 2007	27 November 2009
6th	Patrick Manning[3]	Trinidad and Tobago	Prime Minister	2009	27 November 2009	25 May 2010[3]
7th	Kamla Persad-Bissessar[4]			None[4]	26 May 2010[4]	28 October 2011
8th	Julia Gillard	Australia	Prime Minister	2011	28 October 2011	Incumbent

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c} "The Commonwealth at and immediately after the Coolum CHOGM". The Round Table 91 (364): pp. 125–9. April 2002. doi:10.1080/00358530220144139. 
2. ^ Ingram, Derek (January 2004). "Abuja Notebook". The Round Table 93 (373): pp. 7–10. doi:10.1080/0035853042000188157. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Staff writer (28 May 2010). "Former Trinidad PM Manning resigns as political leader". CaribbeanNetNews. http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/trinidad/trinidad.php?news_id=23374&start=0&category_id=17. Retrieved 29 May 2010. "Trinidad and Tobago's former prime minister Patrick Manning has handed in his resignation as political leader of the People's National Movement (PNM), three days after being defeated at the polls." 
4. ^ ^{a b c} Staff writer (29 May 2010). "Kamla now Commonwealth Chair". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,121594.html. Retrieved 29 May 2010. "The position she has inherited from former prime minister Patrick Manning following the nation’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November, 2009. In a statement issued yesterday, the Royal Commonwealth Society congratulated Persad-Bissessar on her appointment as Prime Minister and also praised the conduct of her election campaign."