Another futile meeting between Govt, PPP – Nandlall

GECOM chairmanship

The second meeting between Attorney General Basil Williams, SC, and the legal team from the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has been another futile attempt to resolve the impasse that has arisen in relation to the appointment of a Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

This is according to former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who, along with PPP’s Priya Manickchand, met with Williams on Monday to continue their discussions on their varying interpretations of the Constitution of Guyana relative to the appointment of the GECOM Chairman.

According to Nandlall, the Attorney General did not live up to his promise to offer his or the Government’s interpretation of Article 161 (2) of the Constitution.

Instead, he handed them a document titled “Response of Hon Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, SC, MP, to the Opposition’s contention on Article 161 (2) of the Constitution.”

Nandlall said the document essayed a response to his interpretation of Article 161 (2) of the Constitution which he had submitted during the first meeting.

The former Attorney General said his successor’s focal argument is that the ejusdem generis rule of construction of statute applies to Guyana.

The ejusdem generis rule is used to interpret statutes when a law lists classes of persons or things.

Efforts to contact the Attorney General for his take on the outcome of the meeting proved futile, as calls to his mobile phone went unanswered.

However, Nandlall posited that the entire argument of the ejusdem generis rule does not assist in resolving the matter at hand regarding the interpretation of Article 161 (2).

“In fact, if we are to follow suit and reciprocate, we will end up creating another and new controversy, ie, whether that cannon of statutory construction does or does not apply in Guyana. This simply distracts from the issue at hand,” Nandlall contended in a statement.

The Attorney General’s document concludes that “the ideal person in contemplation of the framers of the Constitution is someone who falls into the first category namely, a judge, a person who has held office as a judge or a person qualified to be a judge… a list from the Leader of the Opposition with candidates that only fit into the second category namely ‘any other fit and proper person’ would be an unacceptable list.”

Nandlall asserts that in his response, the Attorney General abysmally failed to address the quintessential issue and the real crux of the matter: who qualify as/or what are the attributes of “any other fit and proper person”.

Article 161 (2) states that “… 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…”

In arguing that the ejusdem generis rule applies in Guyana, the Attorney General is positing that the pronoun “other” speaks volumes and must be interpreted to mean that such “other fit and proper persons” must possess the characteristics of the two-named preceding persons. But Nandlall previously contended that the Court of Appeal had ruled that the ejusdem generis rule does not apply in Guyana.

The PPP had explained on countless occasions that the Constitution was amended to include the Carter Formula which was designed to expand the range of persons suitable to be appointed the GECOM Chairman (to not limit that pool of persons to judges or those qualified to be judges).

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has nominated Attorney and Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram; Executive Member of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo; former PSC Chairman and Army Chief Norman Mc Lean; writer Rhyaan Shah; Professor James Rose; and human rights and conflict resolution consultant Lawrence Latchmansingh.

But President David Granger declared that the entire list was “unacceptable” because none of the candidates met the constitutional requirement of being a judge or being eligible to be a judge.

From all indications, Granger wants all six persons to meet that constitutional requirement of being in possession of such legal qualifications. He had requested the Opposition Leader submit a second list, but Jagdeo has since indicated that he would await the outcome of the meeting between the Attorney General and his representatives before he makes a decision.

He had also suggested going to the Caribbean Court of Justice to seek an interpretation of the Guyana Constitution given the impasse locally. Based on the outcome of the meetings between the Attorney General and the PPP representatives, the nation will know how the political leaders will move forward regarding the appointment of a new GECOM Chairman.