GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Three candidates from Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica have been shortlisted for the post of secretary general of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping.

Informed sources said Guyana’s Brussels-based Ambassador to the ACP Dr P I Gomes; Jamaica’s Patricia Francis, the former executive director of the International Trade Centre, and a former head of JAMPRO; and Dr Hamid Ghany, a political scientist and senior lecturer at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, have been shortlisted for the post. St Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti and Suriname had also named candidates for the top ACP post.

Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues- Birkett was quoted by the DemeraraWaves website here as saying she is “happy that the process has advanced for selecting the secretary general of the ACP”.

The website also quoted Suriname’s candidate Rabin Parmessar as saying the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country would have preferred just one candidate named for the post.

“It’s time for the Caribbean region to show their teeth. It is our term to appoint a secretary general for the ACP, and we are opposed to the idea to name three candidates for the ACP ministerial council to vote on, instead of just presenting one candidate,” he told the website.

Caribbean leaders are yet to publicly confirm the names of the shortlisted candidates, keeping the matter as a very closely guarded secret.

Caricom had until last night to present three final candidates for the position.

Secretary General Irwin La Rocque, speaking at the end of the summit of regional leaders in Antigua in July, noted that a process is being led by the ACP with regards to the selection of a candidate.

In July, the ACP Council confirmed at its 99th session in Kenya that the next ACP secretary general for 2015- 2020 shall be appointed from the Caribbean region.

The secretary general holds executive powers and heads the Brussels-based ACP Secretariat, which is the administrative and technical body of the ACP Group.

The secretariat provides policy guidance and technical expertise to the Organs of the Group, and monitors the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement.

Appointment to the top post is for five years, and generally follows a principle of rotation amongst the six ACP regions, including West Africa (currently holding the post), East Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands.

The secretary general shall in turn appoint four assistant secretaries general to head various departments in the secretariat during his term.

Nominees for these posts are also proposed by the regions. The current secretary general is Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni of Ghana, whose tenure ends in February 2015.

The last Caribbean national to hold the post of ACP secretary general was Trinidadian Sir Edwin Carrington, who served from 1985-1990. Sir Edwin, who is now employed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Trinidad and Tobago, also served as ACP deputy secretary general from 1977.