Commonwealth Chair-in-Office

Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth of Nations
Incumbent Joseph Muscat since 26 November 2015
Term length	2 years
Inaugural holder	Thabo Mbeki
Formation	12 November 1999
Website	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.^[1]

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, whose office drafted the troika's statement: leaving little role for the troika itself, but potentially increasing the power of the Secretary-General. The third Chair, Olusegun Obasanjo, did more to invigorate the role of the position after taking over in 2003.^[2]

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 woman to chair the Commonwealth, gave the keynote address. Sri Lanka was also slated to host the much anticipated Commonwealth Economic Forum in 2011, however, it was held in Perth, Australia due to accusations of war atrocities 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 resigning as Prime Minister of Australia on 27 June 2013. Rudd went on to lose the Australian federal election in September 2013, and was subsequently succeeded 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.^[3]

List of Chairs-in-Office

Elizabeth II (1999–present)

#	Name	Country	Title	CHOGM	Start	End
1	Thabo Mbeki	South Africa	President	1999	12 November 1999	2 March 2002
2	John Howard	Australia	Prime Minister	2002	2 March 2002	5 December 2003
3	Olusegun Obasanjo	Nigeria	President	2003	5 December 2003	25 November 2005
4	Lawrence Gonzi	Malta	Prime Minister	2005	25 November 2005	23 November 2007
5	Yoweri Museveni	Uganda	President	2007	23 November 2007	27 November 2009
6	Patrick Manning[4]	Trinidad and Tobago	Prime Minister	2009	27 November 2009	25 May 2010[4]
7	Kamla Persad-Bissessar[5]			None[5]	26 May 2010[5]	28 October 2011
8	Julia Gillard	Australia	Prime Minister	2011	28 October 2011	27 June 2013
9	Kevin Rudd			None	27 June 2013	18 September 2013
10	Tony Abbott			None	18 September 2013	15 November 2013
11	Mahinda Rajapaksa	Sri Lanka	President	2013	15 November 2013	9 January 2015
12	Maithripala Sirisena			None	9 January 2015	27 November 2015
13	Joseph Muscat	Malta	Prime Minister	2015	27 November 2015	Incumbent

Footnotes