(Trinidad Guardian) Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) vice president of finance and corporate services, Gregory Hill, left, and advisor to the Prime Minister of Barbados, Daniel Best, are the two contenders for the position of CDB president.
The voting for a new president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) was deadlocked on Wednesday, with the board of governors representing the 28 member countries being unable to decide between T&T’s Gregory Hill and Daniel Best of Barbados.
Hill currently serves as the CDB’s vice president, finance and corporate services, while Best is the senior infrastructure and development advisor to Prime Minster of Barbados, Mia Mottley. A third candidate, Bahamian Therese Turner Jones, who is the CDB’s acting vice president of operations, was withdrawn from the election this week.
According to the agreement that established the CDB, the president of the Barbados-based regional lender shall be elected by a vote of not less than 66 per cent of the total number of the governors representing not less than 75 per cent of the total voting power of the members.
The CDB’s two largest shareholders are Trinidad and Tobago with 17.31 per cent and Jamaica with 17.31 per cent. Canada and the United Kindom hold 9.31 per cent each, while Italy and Germany are 5.58 per cent shareholders.
The election for a new president of the CDB, follows the decision by the institution in April to send its former president, Hyginus ‘Gene’ Lyon, on administrative leave.
Leon was the sixth president of the regional development finance institution.
The founding president of the CDB was St Lucian Arthur Lewis, who was followed by William Demas from T&T, Neville Nicholls from Barbados, Compton Bourne from Guyana and Warren Smith from Jamaica.
In the latest development, the CDB told the Caribbean Media Corpora-tion (CMC) on yesterday that the board of governors convened a meeting on Wednesday to commence the voting process for the election of the Bank’s next President.
“This process is ongoing and is expected to conclude by December 6,” the CDB said.
The additional round of voting is expected to start on December 4.