Granger may want to cut deal with Jagdeo on GECOM chairmanship – Gaskin

The procrastination of President David Granger in relation to the selection of the next Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has not gone unnoticed.

Outspoken political commentator and economist Ramon Gaskin said he was deeply convinced based on the President’s reaction towards this issue that he was in favour of choosing his own nominee.
In fact, Gaskin is of the strong opinion that the President wants to cut a deal with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on the GECOM chairmanship, hence him inviting the latter to a meeting.
“Granger wants to pick his own person, but he is not seeing a way to do it, because the Constitution says he got to pick from the list,” Gaskin opined, further stating that another meeting with the Opposition is pointless.
While the President has said that he wants to meet with Jagdeo to discuss “the way forward” on the GECOM issue, the political commentator said the President should pick a name instead.
“He has to pick a name from the list. Moving forward means you have reached a gridlock and you have to discuss the way forward, but this is not the case with this issue,” he argued.
Gaskin drew reference to a male candidate that was nominated by the Freeman Commission for the post of Chancellor of the Judiciary along with retired judge, Justice Claudette La Bennett.
“He wants to get Jagdeo to agree to have this new man he wants as Chancellor. So, I don’t know if he wants to do a deal with Jagdeo, because he needs consent of the Opposition Leader.”
At present, Justice Yonnette Cummings-Edwards is the acting Chancellor. Before that, Carl Singh held that key role in the judiciary, but was never appointed substantively.
According to Gaskin, the nominee is a Guyanese who worked as a judge in the Caribbean.
“I don’t know if he wants to talk to Jagdeo about that in exchange for agreement on GECOM. But all that is possible, because he needs the consensus and he wants to be comfortable.”
Gaskin has said that if the President rejects third list, it would send a clear message that he is more focused on complicating the process of selecting another Chairman for GECOM.
“It would mean that he is fooling around and that he wants to put his own person there. And it also means that he is trying to get Jagdeo frustrated, because once Jagdeo stops submitting lists, he could say that he has no list in front of him,” he opined.
Gaskin reminded that the Constitution allows the President the option of appointing someone of his choice, but only on the basis that the Opposition Leader fails to submit a list. “The Constitution says Granger could pick somebody. That is what I think he would like to do. He may not get away with it, but that is what he may want to do,” the political commentator added.
He continued, President “Granger is only confortable with people he picks. He has to pick the person who he is comfortable with. He likes to pick military people and People’s National Congress (PNC) people. He wants to be able to pick the person…”
This is something that Jagdeo said he feared and had raised concerns about.
On the possibility that the third set of nominees will be rejected by Granger, Jagdeo insisted that all 18 nominees, including the 12 already rejected, were fit and proper and were qualified to act in the post of GECOM Chairperson.
After the first two sets of nominees for the post of GECOM Chairperson were rejected by the President, the latest nominees named by Jagdeo included: Major General Joseph Singh, Teni Housty, Sanjeev Datadin, Annette Arjune-Martins, Onesi La Fleur and Krishnadatt Persaud.
Jagdeo said, “If our President cannot find from 18 persons – 18 persons who are all professionals, who have some standing in our society, who have demonstrated independent positions and actions, who have been impartial….most of them are more technically qualified than the President himself and most of his Ministers – (if) he can’t find a single one of the 18 fit and proper, then something is wrong, not with those people anymore or the process, something is wrong with him, and maybe he is not fit and proper to make the selection.”
GECOM has been without a chairman since February 2017, when Dr Steve Surujbally, a veterinarian, retired. The non-appointment of the Chairperson is stalling the Commission’s work.