Profiles of Commonwealth Heads of Government Media Handbook Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Colombo, Sri Lanka, 15 – 17 November 2013 Contents Antigua and Barbuda The Hon Winston Baldwin Spencer 1 Australia The Hon Tony Abbott 2 The Bahamas The Rt Hon Perry G Christie 3 Bangladesh The Hon Sheikh Hasina 4 Barbados The Hon Freundel Jerome Stuart 5 Belize The Hon Dean Oliver Barrow 6 Botswana HE Lt Gen Seretse Khama Ian Khama 7 Brunei Darussalam HM Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah 8 Cameroon HE Mr Paul Biya 9 Canada The Rt Hon Stephen Harper 10 Cyprus HE Mr Nicos Anastasiades 11 Dominica The Hon Roosevelt Skerrit 12 Ghana HE Mr John Dramani Mahama 13 Grenada Dr the Rt Hon Keith Claudius Mitchell 14 Guyana HE Mr Donald Rabindranauth Ramotar 15 India Fiji was fully suspended The Hon Dr Manmohan Singh 16 from membership of the Commonwealth on Jamaica 1 September 2009 pending The Most Hon Portia Simpson Miller 17 restoration of a democratically elected government. iii Contents cont Kenya HE Mr Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta 18 Kiribati HE Mr Anote Tong 19 Lesotho The Rt Hon Dr Motsoahae Thomas Thaban 20 Malawi HE Dr Joyce Banda 21 Malaysia The Hon Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak 22 Maldives* 23 Malta The Hon Dr Joseph Muscat 24 Mauritius The Hon Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam 25 Mozambique HE Mr Armando Emilio Guebuza 26 Namibia HE Mr Hifikepunye Pohamba 27 Nauru HE Mr Baron Waqa 28 New Zealand The Rt Hon John Key 29 Nigeria HE Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan 30 Pakistan The Hon Muhammad Nawaz Sharif 31 Papua New Guinea The Hon Peter O’Neill 32 Rwanda HE Mr Paul Kagame 33 St Kitts and Nevis The Rt Hon Dr Denzil Llewellyn Douglas 34 * At the time of printing Maldives is in the process of holding a Saint Lucia The Hon Dr Kenneth Davis Anthony 35 iv Presidential Election. St Vincent and the Grenadines The Hon Dr Ralph Everard Gonsalves 36 Samoa The Hon Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi 37 Seychelles HE Mr James Alix Michel 38 Sierra Leone HE Mr Ernest Bai Koroma 39 Singapore The Hon Lee Hsien Loong 40 Solomon Islands The Hon Gordon Darcy Lilo 41 South Africa HE Mr Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma 42 Sri Lanka HE Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa 43 Swaziland The Hon Dr Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini 44 Tonga The Hon Lord Siale’ataonga Tu’ivakano 45 Trinidad and Tobago The Hon Kamla Persad-Bissessar 46 Tuvalu The Hon Enele Sopoaga 47 Uganda HE Mr Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 48 United Kingdom The Rt Hon David Cameron 49 United Republic of Tanzania HE Mr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete 50 Vanuatu The Hon Moana Carcasses Kalosil 51 Zambia HE Mr Michael Chilufya Sata 52 v Antigua and Barbuda The Hon Winston Baldwin Spencer PRIME MINISTER The Hon Winston Baldwin Spencer, Leader of the United Progressive Party, was re-elected to a second term in office as Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda following his victory COMMONWEALTH at the 12 March 2009 general election. Mr Spencer began his MEMBERSHIP first term in office in March 2004. He is concurrently Minister of 1981 Foreign Affairs. Before becoming Prime Minister, Mr Spencer INDEPENDENCE DAY served in the House of Representatives for more than 15 years 1 November 1981 as Leader of the Opposition. CAPITAL Mr Spencer was Chairperson of the Caribbean Community St John’s from 2008 to 2009. He has also served as Chair of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and sat as AREA Co-Chairperson of the Summit Meeting between the 442.6 sq km European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico in 2004. He chaired one of four Round Tables of Heads of POPULATION State and Government at the World Summit 2005, at the 90,000 (2011) United Nations General Assembly. CURRENCY Mr Spencer was Chair of the Group of 77 developing Eastern Caribbean dollar countries and China at the United Nations in September ECONOMY 2008. He was honoured with the Millennium Development Manufacturing Goals Achievement Award that year for his commitment and and tourism contributions in promoting and strengthening partnerships between the UN and the private sector to achieve global STATUS anti-poverty goals. Constitutional monarchy under Mr Spencer was educated in labour relations at Ruskin College- HM Queen Elizabeth II Oxford, St. Francis Xavier University - Coady International Institute in Canada, and the University of WEBSITE Oslo, Norway. ab.gov.ag Mr Spencer has diplomas in social leadership from the Coady International Institute, Canada; labour and economic studies from Ruskin College, Oxford University; and labour and industrial relations from Oslo University, Norway. He was born on 8 October 1948. 1 Australia The Hon Tony Abbott PRIME MINISTER The Hon Tony Abbott was sworn in as the 28th Prime Minister of Australia on 18 September 2013. Prior to the election of the Coalition Government on COMMONWEALTH MEMBERSHIP 7 September 2013, Mr Abbott had been Leader of the 1931 Opposition since 1 December 2009. During the Howard (Statute of Westminster) Government, Mr Abbott served as a Parliamentary Secretary, Minister, Cabinet Minister and Leader of the House of NATIONAL DAY Representatives. He was Minister for Health and Ageing from 26 January 2003–2007, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations from 2001–2003 and Minister for Employment Services from CAPITAL 1998–2001. He has been Leader of the Liberal Party since Canberra 2009. AREA Mr Abbott was first elected as Member for Warringah in March 7,682,395 sq km 1994. He has been re-elected as Member for Warringah at POPULATION seven subsequent elections. Prior to entering parliament, 22,606,000 (2011) Mr Abbott was a journalist with The Australian and The Bulletin. He was press secretary and political adviser to the Leader of CURRENCY the Opposition, Dr John Hewson, before becoming Executive Australian dollar Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. ECONOMY Mr Abbott holds economics and law degrees from Sydney Agriculture, University. He is a Rhodes Scholar and holds a Master of Arts in manufacturing, mining, Politics and Philosophy from Oxford University. Mr Abbott livestock farming and is the author of four books. tourism He was born in London, UK, on 4 November 1957 and STATUS migrated to Australia with his family in 1960. Constitutional monarchy under HM Queen Elizabeth II WEBSITE australia.gov.au 2 The Bahamas The Rt Hon Perry G Christie PRIME MINISTER The Rt Hon Perry G Christie was sworn in as the fifth Prime Minister of The Bahamas on 8 May 2012, following the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) victory in the general COMMONWEALTH elections of 7 May 2012. MEMBERSHIP 1973 He is also the Minister of Finance with responsibility for the Office of the Prime Minister, Department of Lands and INDEPENDENCE DAY Surveys, Department of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance. 10 July 1973 In 2002, Mr Christie became the third Prime Minister of CAPITAL The Bahamas, with the PLP’s victory over the Free National Nassau Movement. AREA He was appointed Leader of the Opposition by the 13,939 sq km Governor-General on 7 April 1997. In January 1993, Mr Christie was elected Co-Deputy Leader of the PLP. POPULATION 347,000 (2011) Receiving the PLP’s nomination for the Centreville constituency in the 1977 general election, Mr Christie was CURRENCY elected Member of Parliament for that constituency and Bahamian dollar shortly after appointed Minister of Health and National ECONOMY Insurance. During the June 1982 general election he was Fisheries, re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Centreville, and pharmaceuticals, refined was once again appointed to the Prime Minister’s Cabinet petroleum and tourism – this time as Minister of Tourism. Mr Christie ran as an independent candidate in the 1987 general election, retaining STATUS his seat in the Centreville constituency. Three years later he Constitutional returned to the PLP, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture, monarchy under Trade and Industry by the Prime Minister. HM Queen Elizabeth II Mr Christie is believed to have been the youngest Bahamian WEBSITE ever appointed to the Senate, serving as in that capacity from bahamas.gov.bs November 1974 to June 1977. Mr Christie attended University Tutorial College, London, Inner Temple and Birmingham University, from which he graduated with honours in 1969. He is an Attorney-At-Law. He was born in Nassau on 21 August 1943. 3 Bangladesh The Hon Sheikh Hasina PRIME MINISTER The Hon Sheikh Hasina was returned to power as Prime Minister of Bangladesh when her Awami League party, which led an alliance of political parties, won the parliamentary COMMONWEALTH elections of 29 December 2008. MEMBERSHIP 1972 She took office on 6 January 2009. Her first term as Prime Minister was from June 1996 to 2001 after the Awami League INDEPENDENCE DAY won the 1996 parliamentary election. 26 March 1971 Sheikh Hasina served as Leader of the Opposition from 1986 CAPITAL to June 1996, and from 2001 to 2008. She has been President Dhaka of the Awami League since 1981, when she was elected as the party’s leader while living in exile in New Delhi, India. Sheikh AREA Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founder of 143,998 sq km independent Bangladesh. POPULATION She has won numerous awards, including UNESCO’s Félix 150,494,000 (2011) Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in 1998 for helping to end CURRENCY 25 years of insurgency and conflict in the Chittagong Hill Ta k a Tracts. Sheikh Hasina also won the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Ceres Medal in 1999 for her contributions ECONOMY to agricultural development and food security. Additionally, Agriculture, fisheries and she received the Pearl S Buck Award in 2000, awarded by the manufacturing Randolph College, Lynchburg, Virginia, USA, in recognition of STATUS her achievements in socio-economic and political affairs.