Dear Editor,
In accordance with the Constitution, Guyana’s Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, last week submitted a list of six nominees to President David Granger for his consideration and appointment of one as Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
President Granger asserted that none of the nominees was a judge, or qualified to be a judge, as the Constitution dictates. Consequently, the President, exercising his powers under the Constitution, declared the nominees “unacceptable,” and rejected the list.
Mr Jagdeo retorted that, apart from the requirement that the Chairman shall be a judge or a person qualified to be a judge, Article 161(2) of the Constitution also mandates that “any other fit and proper person” may be so appointed. Mr Jagdeo subsequently announced an intention to approach the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for an interpretation of Article 161 (2) of the Constitution; particularly the clause “any other fit and proper person.”
Article 161(2) states that “Subject to the provisions of paragraph (4), the Chairman of the Elections Commission shall be a person who holds or who has held office as a judge of a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in some part of the Commonwealth or a court having jurisdiction in appeals from any such court or who is qualified to be appointed as any such judge, or any other fit and proper person, to be appointed by the President from a list of six persons, not unacceptable to the President, submitted by the Leader of the Opposition after meaningful consultation with the non-governmental political parties represented in the National Assembly.”
Approaching the CCJ on this matter would be nugatory. I believe that the powers which Article 161(a) confers on the President are absolute and innocuous from judicial review. Regardless of any requirement, qualification or eligibility, the Constitution mandates that, ultimately, the nominees by the Opposition Leader cannot be “unacceptable to the President.” It therefore follows that acceptability is not to be determined by the nominator or the courts, but exclusively by the President, guided by the Constitution – not the Opposition Leader or a judge.
Sincerely,
Rickford Burke
President, Caribbean
Guyana Institute for
Democracy (CGID)
