# Commonwealth Chair-in-Office

The Commonwealth Chair-in-Office (CIO) is the Chair-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. Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa, Prime Minister of Samoa, is the current Chair-in-Office of the association since 25 October 2024.

## Overview

The primary responsibility of the Chair-in-Office is to host the CHOGM, but their roles can be expanded. For example, after the 2002 CHOGM, the incumbent, previous, and next Chairmen-in-Office formed a troika in an attempt to resolve the ongoing dispute over Zimbabwe's membership of the Commonwealth.
The position was created after the 1999 CHOGM, with Thabo Mbeki becoming the first Chair-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. Even after John Howard became Chair, the troika's first meeting was in London, in the presence of the Commonwealth Secretary-General. The third Chair, Olusegun Obasanjo, did more to invigorate the role of the position after taking over in 2003.
From the assumption of the role at the 2009 CHOGM, representatives from Trinidad and Tobago, including the Prime Ministers, attended Commonwealth meetings, including 2011 Commonwealth Day celebrations where Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first woman to chair the Commonwealth, gave the keynote address. Sri Lanka was due to host the Commonwealth Economic Forum in 2011 but it was held instead in Perth, Western Australia, due to accusations of war crimes committed during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
As Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard succeeded Persad-Bissessar as the second female Chair at the 2011 CHOGM. Julia Gillard was in-turn succeeded by Kevin Rudd after she resigned as Prime Minister of Australia on 27 June 2013. Rudd went on to lose the Australian federal election in September 2013, and consequently was succeeded as Commonwealth's CiO by the new prime minister Tony Abbott. Abbott remained in the position until Commonwealth leaders met for the 23rd time on 15 November 2013, where he was succeeded by the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was succeeded by Maithripala Sirisena in 2015.

## List of chairs-in-office

| No. | Name | Country | Title | CHOGM | Start | End | Secretary-General |
| 1 | Thabo Mbeki | South Africa | President | 1999 | 12 November 1999 | 2 March 2002 | Emeka Anyaoku |
| 1 | Thabo Mbeki | South Africa | President | 1999 | 12 November 1999 | 2 March 2002 | Don McKinnon |
| 2 | John Howard | Australia | Prime Minister | 2002 | 2 March 2002 | 5 December 2003 | Don McKinnon |
| 3 | Olusegun Obasanjo | Nigeria | President | 2003 | 5 December 2003 | 25 November 2005 | Don McKinnon |
| 4 | Lawrence Gonzi | Malta | Prime Minister | 2005 | 25 November 2005 | 23 November 2007 | Don McKinnon |
| 5 | Yoweri Museveni | Uganda | President | 2007 | 23 November 2007 | 27 November 2009 | Don McKinnon |
| 5 | Yoweri Museveni | Uganda | President | 2007 | 23 November 2007 | 27 November 2009 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 6 | Patrick Manning | Trinidad and Tobago | Prime Minister | 2009 | 27 November 2009 | 25 May 2010 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 7 | Kamla Persad-Bissessar | Trinidad and Tobago | Prime Minister | 2009 | 26 May 2010 | 28 October 2011 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 8 | Julia Gillard | Australia | Prime Minister | 2011 | 28 October 2011 | 27 June 2013 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 9 | Kevin Rudd | Australia | Prime Minister | 2011 | 27 June 2013 | 18 September 2013 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 10 | Tony Abbott | Australia | Prime Minister | 2011 | 18 September 2013 | 15 November 2013 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 11 | Mahinda Rajapaksa | Sri Lanka | President | 2013 | 15 November 2013 | 9 January 2015 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 12 | Maithripala Sirisena | Sri Lanka | President | 2013 | 9 January 2015 | 27 November 2015 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 13 | Joseph Muscat | Malta | Prime Minister | 2015 | 27 November 2015 | 19 April 2018 | Kamalesh Sharma |
| 13 | Joseph Muscat | Malta | Prime Minister | 2015 | 27 November 2015 | 19 April 2018 | Patricia Scotland |
| 14 | Theresa May | United Kingdom | Prime Minister | 2018 | 19 April 2018 | 24 July 2019 | Patricia Scotland |
| 15 | Boris Johnson | United Kingdom | Prime Minister | 2018 | 24 July 2019 | 24 June 2022 | Patricia Scotland |
| 16 | Paul Kagame | Rwanda | President | 2022 | 24 June 2022 | 25 October 2024 | Patricia Scotland |
| 17 | Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa | Samoa | Prime Minister | 2024 | 25 October 2024 | Incumbent | Patricia Scotland |

## Footnotes

* ↑ "Our History". The Commonwealth. The Commonwealth. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
* ↑ Ingram, Derek (January 2004). "Abuja Notebook". The Round Table. 93 (373): 7–10. doi:10.1080/0035853042000188157.
* ↑ WEERASINGHE, Chamikara. "President will be C' wealth Chairman for next two years - GL". Daily News.
* 1 2 "Former Trinidad PM Manning resigns as political leader". CaribbeanNetNews. 28 May 2010. Archived from the original on 28 July 2010. 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.
* 1 2 "Kamla now Commonwealth Chair". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. 29 May 2010. 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.