Appointment of GECOM Chair
More than one week after they last met, President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo are likely to meet sometime today to continue discussions on the appointment of a new Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson.
This was revealed by Jagdeo at his weekly press conference on Thursday. In updating the media on the process, he said Director General at the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, contacted him on Wednesday evening.
“I got a call from Harmon saying to me that a meeting is contemplated for some time (Friday) with the President. So that’s where we are in terms of the selection of the Chairman of GECOM. So I’m awaiting confirmation of that meeting,” Jagdeo stated.
Currently, the Opposition Leader is awaiting the President’s feedback on four new names that were presented last Wednesday for consideration. These additional candidates were handed over during a meeting between representatives selected by the two leaders to “hammer out” a final list of six names.
Already, the President has found four of the Opposition’s candidates “not unacceptable”. This means they will potentially end up on the final list of six nominees to be submitted to the President by the Opposition Leader for the selection of a new GECOM Chair.
While those final four names were not disclosed, Guyana Times understands that Conflict Resolution Specialist Lawrence Latchmansingh is among those whom the Head of State found acceptable.
Initially, the Opposition Leader had presented 11 names to be “hammered out” by a working group comprising of representatives from both Government and the Opposition. These nominees were among the 18 rejected back in 2017 by President Granger, who had gone ahead and unilaterally appointed retired Justice James Patterson as the GECOM Chair.
However, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on June 18, 2019, had ruled that Justice Patterson’s appointment was flawed and unconstitutional. Days later, he stepped down opening up the process for a new chairman to be appointed.
As such, the regional Court had urged that there be consensus between the two leaders in this process, resulting in the establishment of the working group. However, during a series of meetings earlier this month, the President’s representatives shortlisted only five of the Opposition’s 11 nominees.
This resulted in a breakdown in those talks and the process was then referred back to the two political leaders, who met last Tuesday and agreed to continue the hammering out process with a smaller team.
That team met on Wednesday, during which the four additional names were tabled. These new candidates are not among those 18 previously rejected by the Head of State.
Additionally, the Opposition, at the meeting, indicated that the President’s two suggestions for the GECOM post, Attorney Kesaundra Alves and Justice Claudette La Bennet, did not find favour with the Opposition Leader.
The two sides were supposed to meet the following day but that meeting is yet to happen.
Nevertheless with two more spots available, the Opposition has indicated their willing to continue the hammering out process until there are six names all acceptable by the Head of State.
Moreover, Harmon on Wednesday also reaffirmed that talks between the two sides have not been discontinued by the Government or that the Opposition was disengaged.
He was at the time responding to an earlier statement from PPP Executive Member Gail Teixeira, who complained that no engagements were held between the two sides since last Wednesday.
Teixeira accused the caretaker coalition Government of acting in bad faith given the importance of the appointment of a new GECOM Chair in the current circumstances when early elections are constitutionally due on or before September 18, 2019. She noted that the President seems to be dragging his feet on the matter.
However, the Head of State, in a televised programme last week, said he foresees a gridlock in the ongoing hammering out process if the Opposition does not accept that he has to be a part of the informal stage.
“It is a recipe for gridlock. The important thing which the CCJ aimed at is to ensure consensualism, that is to say, there must be a spirit of compromise. There must be acceptance of the role of the President in hammering out the list and similarly, we are to aim – both sides – at having a list of candidates were are not unacceptable to the President. Unless we accept that principle we will end up in gridlock and that is what we’re heading for if the Opposition continues to deny the President a role in hammering out that list,” President Granger insisted.
However, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is a subsequent statement rejected this position of the President, reminding that even he had admitted after his first meeting with Jagdeo that he cannot make recommendations to himself.
