The 2003 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was the 18th

Meeting A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision making. Defini ...

of the

Heads of Government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

of the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

. It was held in

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, between 5 December and 8 December 2003, and hosted by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo, , ( ; yo, Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian political and military leader who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its pres ...

. The

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

an issue was dominant, leading to one of the highest media profiles for a CHOGM in recent times. The dispute over Zimbabwe's suspension led to a dispute over the re-election of

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

Don McKinnon, and, before the end of the meeting, Robert Mugabe's announcement that Zimbabwe was withdrawing from the Commonwealth. The Aso Rock Declaration reaffirmed the

Harare Declaration The Harare Commonwealth Declaration was a declaration of the Commonwealth of Nations, setting out the Commonwealth's core principles and values, detailing the Commonwealth's membership criteria, and redefining and reinforcing its purpose. The ...

of 1991 and set the 'promotion of democracy and development' as the organisation's priorities. The meeting was attended by representatives of fifty-one countries out of the Commonwealth's fifty-four members (suspended members Zimbabwe and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

were not invited, whilst

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two maj ...

sent no representative). Thirty-eight were represented by their

Head of State A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

Head of Government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

Zimbabwe

Rather predictably, but despite attempts to the contrary, the issue of Zimbabwe dominated. Some African members had spoken out against what they saw as the 'undemocratic' suspension of Zimbabwe, but were criticised for not respecting the principle of consensus, under which dissenting voices to an issue that had already been decided and voting on are usually only heard privately. Olusegun Obasanjo was seen to have acquitted himself well in the Commonwealth's position of Chairperson-in-Office in the manner in which he addressed this issue. The issue was brought to a head in the election of the

. The incumbent,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

er Don McKinnon, was nominated for another four-year term, and

convention Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law * Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...

stipulates that an incumbent running again is to be unchallenged. However,

Thabo Mbeki of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

spearheaded a campaign to have

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

's Lakshman Kadirgamar elected in protest over the handling of the Zimbabwe matter. Nonetheless, African countries were divided, with only five African Heads of Government voting with Mbeki, and the attempt to move the election down the agenda to provide time to develop momentum for the movement was unsuccessful. With Mbeki's tactics failing, and with neither Kadirgamar nor the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

of Sri Lanka in Abuja, the challenge was easily defeated, by forty votes to eleven. In response to the failure to overthrow McKinnon or to lift Zimbabwe's suspension, Robert Mugabe announced on 7 December that Zimbabwe was to leave the Commonwealth immediately: marking only the third occasion (after

in 1961 and

in 1971) that a country had withdrawn voluntarily.

Footnotes

External links

Commonwealth Secretariat webpage on CHOGM 2005
{{Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2003 in Nigeria Diplomatic conferences in Nigeria 21st-century diplomatic conferences 2003 in international relations Nigeria and the Commonwealth of Nations 21st century in Abuja December 2003 events in Nigeria