During her inaugural visit there last July  then-Secretary-General Patricia Scotland described the country as a ‘beacon of hope for the region'...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Africa Confidential had already exclusively reported that Foreign Secretary David Lammy had written to Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland rejecting her invitation to member states to approve the readmission (AC Vol 65 No 24  Zimbabwe readmission ‘is off')...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	    Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland's plan to re-admit Zimbabwe has run into resistance from Britain's Labour government  diplomatic sources have told Africa Confidential...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     The outgoing Secretary-General  Baroness Patricia Scotland  has written to member states seeking their views but making it clear she supports Harare's candidacy...
	 
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	     The reason for this decision dates back to an audit report in 2019 which stated that current Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland had circumvented tendering rules to award a £250 000 contract to a close friend and fellow Labour peer (Dispatches 30/6/22  Scotland wins leadership battle despite Whitehall opposition)...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	     Making sure to pay a courtesy call on Patricia Scotland  Secretary General of the Commonwealth  while he was in London to attend King Charles III's coronation  Mnangagwa has to jump the same election hurdle to stand a chance of being readmitted to the body...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
            Vol 63 No 19 | 
            - AFRICA
- BRITAIN
	     Johnson's only visit as prime minister to the continent was for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit (CHOGM) in Kigali in June  where African leaders voted overwhelmingly against Britain's preferred candidate for Commonwealth secretary-general  Jamaica's foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith  in favour of retaining the incumbent  Patricia Scotland (Dispatches 30/6/22  Scotland wins leadership battle despite Whitehall opposition)...
	 
    
    
    
			
        
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	    Baroness Patricia Scotland won re-election as the Secretary General of the Commonwealth in a tight contest and bad-tempered finale to its summit in Kigali between 20 and 26 June  the organisation's first in-person meeting for over two years...
	 
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	     With the incumbent  British Baroness Patricia Scotland  seeking a second four-year term  this would pit the African and Caribbean regional blocs against each other...
	 
    
    
    
    
        
	
	    In a last-ditch bid to remain secretary-general of the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat  Dominica-born British national Baroness Patricia Scotland of Asthal claims she is being unfairly treated because of her ethnicity...