Never a dull moment during GECOM’s statutory meeting (Pt 2)

Dear Editor,
There is never a dull moment during a statutory meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). On Tuesday we received an invoice from the Law Firm of Fraser, Housty and Yearwood for work done by Teni Housty during the 64.6 hours he spent representing the CEO in the application for Judicial Review filed in the Berbice High Court, where he made two appearances. The application was dismissed, not on Housty’s affidavit of defence or submissions, but on a Police report which was ordered by the Judge who was hearing the matter.
Remember, Ashton Chase, SC invoiced the GECOM for a total of $950,000 for a High Court and Court of Appeal matter? Well, Housty charges an hourly rate of $50,000, so his invoice total is $3,230,000 and this was approved by the Chairman who wrote a note thereon to his secretary to forward it to the Finance Subcommittee. We are still to get a final invoice from the CEO’s other lawyer, Roysdale Forde, whose initial $2,280,000 was already approved by the Chairman. Chase, SC remains unpaid. There is no indication from which line item in the budget these sums are extracted.
There was a very lengthy discussion about the use of proxies by polling agents of political parties if they are serving outside of their respective constituencies. The majority decision taken is that the matter be discussed after the LGE and a decision be taken on the issues of proxies and/or Certificates of Employment for polling agents, long before GECOM enters the ‘operational mode’ for the 2020 elections.
Our meeting came to an abrupt end at 16:45h when the Chairman’s secretary sent in a note to inform that there was a fire risk due to melting and burning of a main electricity supply line attached to the building. The meeting was abruptly adjourned and we were hurriedly ushered out of the building, As I said, never a dull moment! Until next week.

Sincerely,
Bibi Safora Shadick
Commissioner
GECOM