– promises to go by the book, meet with secretariat today
After weeks of negotiations and delays, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will finally have a Chairperson following the swearing-in of retired Justice Claudette Singh, who took the oath of office on Monday.
Newly sworn-in Chair of GECOM along with His Excellency David Granger; Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo
Two days after President David Granger picked her from a list of six nominees submitted by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, Justice Singh took the oath of office in front of the President and dignitaries at the Ministry of the Presidency.
In an interview following her swearing-in, Justice Singh stressed that she would carry out her role in accordance with the Constitution and the rule of law.
“My priorities are endeavouring to have free, fair and transparent elections. I am also looking forward to having meetings with each set of Commissioners. And I will have them separately. The meeting with Government and Opposition Commissioners. Then I will bring all of them together.”
Retired Justice Claudette Singh taking the oath of office
“I believe in inclusivity and I will speak with everybody. And I don’t believe in people walking out when there is a disagreement. I believe in sitting down and resolving whatever the problem is.”
Singh was previously asked for permission to have her name put forward in a list of nominees for GECOM Chairperson, but had refused. Asked why the change of heart now, the retired Justice said that she accepted the nomination “for the sake of [the] country”.
The new Chairperson was optimistic that she would begin working at the Commission and meeting with staff as early as today. While reports indicate that the meeting between her and Commissioners will go down today, up to press time this publication was unable to confirm a time for today’s meeting.
Collaboration
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, who submitted the list of six containing Singh’s name, was hopeful that the spirit of collaboration between the Opposition and Government could continue. This view was echoed by the President, who noted that Singh’s appointment was the result of the groundwork between Opposition and Government teams.
“It’s a happy day for Guyana, and we look forward to cooperating on the other issues. The President and I spoke about this. And we hope we can take the same spirit we had, the spirit of collaboration in this appointment, into different matters,” Jagdeo said in a brief interview with the media.
“What you saw on July 26 was only possible because of the groundwork that had been put in by the working groups,” Granger said. “So, it was a logical conclusion and Mr Jagdeo and I are looking forward to widening the areas of cooperation in the coming weeks and months.”
New GECOM Chairperson Claudette Singh (centre) poses with the six GECOM Commissioners. From left, PPP nominated Commissioners Robeson Benn, Bibi Shadick and Sase Gunraj, followed by Government nominated Commissioners Charles Corbin, Vincent Alexander and Desmond Trotman
Retired Justice Singh’s appointment comes even as Guyana is over four months overdue for elections, in keeping with Article 106 (6) of the Constitution. Despite elections being due within three months of the December 21, 2018, No-Confidence Motion, GECOM has instead embarked on creating a new voters’ list by way of House-to-House Registration.
The departed
Singh takes over from former GECOM Chairman, retired Justice James Patterson. Patterson, a former High Court Judge and former acting Chief Justice in Grenada, was appointed to the position of Chairman of GECOM by the President in October 2017. At the time, President Granger had rejected three lists submitted by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo. These lists comprised a total of 18 names of former Judges, persons eligible to be Judges and prominent members of civil society.
The President was heavily criticised for his actions and it is the court challenge filed by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Executive Secretary Zulficar Mustapha that eventually resulted in Patterson’s appointment being ruled unconstitutional by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) last month.
Throughout his time at GECOM, Patterson was criticised for seemingly favouring the Government nominated Commissioners with his tiebreaker vote. In one such case, Patterson used his casting vote to break a deadlock and appoint current Deputy Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Roxanne Myers, over the previous DCEO Vishnu Persaud.
This is despite Persaud scoring higher marks than Myers during the evaluation process. An investigation by the Ethnic Relations Commission subsequently found that Persaud was the more qualified candidate.
Despite constitutional stipulations, in February 2019 Patterson again used his deciding vote and sided with Government Commissioners… this time to pass a motion that new elections could not be held in 90 days as constitutionally mandated.
