Third list
– Harmon says President still considering list
More than three weeks after Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo submitted his third list of nominees for the post of Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman, the jury is still out as a decision is yet to be made by the President.
This was revealed when Minister of State Joseph Harmon was probed about the status of the latest set of nominations. He said President David Granger, who has already rejected two other lists, was not ready to make a pronouncement.
“The question of the Chairman of GECOM, it is a matter which is still in the consideration of His Excellency, the President,” Harmon told media operatives at the press conference. “And in due course, you will be advised.”
GECOM has recently been thrown into a tail spin by allegations of procurement rackets and press censorship being levelled against the Commission. An audit conducted by the Auditor General’s Office had found discrepancies, including with GECOM’s purchasing of 50VHF communication radios for close to GY$100 million.
These purchases were made prior to the May 11, 2015 General and Regional Elections, raising concerns over the extraordinarily high cost of the equipment. In a previous interview with <<<Guyana Times>>>, GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj had said these and other matters cannot be addressed by the members while GECOM is without a Chairman.
“I can tell you that without a Chairman, we cannot have meetings,” Gunraj had said. “And in the absence of those meetings, we have not been receiving updates on anything that is going on at GECOM; absolutely no periodic updates on the finances of GECOM, nothing on the operations side or the audit.”
President Granger is currently attending the 72nd General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in New York.
Headless
GECOM was left headless by the retirement a few months ago of long-time Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally. But since then, the task of replacing him has been a contentious one, as President Granger has continuously rejected nominees for the post, as presented by the Opposition Leader.
As required by the Constitution, the Opposition Leader had submitted to President Granger a second batch of six nominees for the post of Chairman of GECOM in April this year, after his first list was rejected.
They were retired Justice of Appeal BS Roy; retired Justice William Ramlall; former Magistrate Oneidge Walrond-Allicock; Attorneys Kashir Khan and Nadia Sagar; and businessman, Captain Gerald Gouveia.
Retired Judges Desiree Bernard and Claudette Singh, and Attorneys Ralph Ramkarran SC, Timothy Jonas and Ronald Burch-Smith had declined his requests to be nominated to the post.
This second list followed Granger deeming the first list “unacceptable” in early January 2017 because none of the nominees were judges, a retired judge or eligible to be appointed a judge.
The first list was made up of Attorney Christopher Ram, Conflict Resolution Specialist Lawrence Lachmansingh, retired Major General Norman McLean, Business executive Ramesh Dookhoo, Indian Rights Activist Rhyaan Shah and History Professor James Rose.
Marcel Gaskin, a businessman and engineer, had moved to the High Court in March of this year, to challenge the constitutionality of President Granger’s reasoning behind his rejection of the list of nominees.
Gaskin, also the brother of the Business Minister Dominic Gaskin, had wanted the court to determine whether Jagdeo’s list of nominees was indeed not “fit and proper” as declared by President Granger.
In July, Chief Justice Roxanne George, SC, overruled the President’s interpretation of the Constitution regarding the appointment of a Chairman for GECOM, finding that there is no particular preference for the appointment of persons within the Judiciary.
In her determination, Justice George found that there was no valid argument to support the idea that the Chairman should be a judge, former judge or person eligible to be a judge, and noted that persons from each category are equally eligible for the post.
However, in an issued statement after the ruling, Gaskin had highlighted that the acting Chief Justice went on to address the proviso to Article 161 (2), which applies to the instance of the Opposition Leader failing to submit a list. (Jarryl Bryan)
