President’s interpretation CCJ ruling “warped”, “disingenuous” – PPP

Appointment of GECOM Chairman

…says Jagdeo has no obligation to include Granger’s suggestions

The People’s Progressive Party has rejected President David Granger’s insistence in submitting names to himself for the appointment of a new Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman.
In a televised programme on Friday, the Head of State 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 which 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 stated.
However, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party in a statement on Saturday said that this “flip-flopping” by the Head of State forces questioning of his “sincerity, good faith, honour, and integrity in the discharge of his constitutional role and function”.
The party reminded that the President had previously acknowledged that he could not recommend nominees for the final list of 6 names to be submitted to him for the selection of a new GECOM Chair.
“…as I discussed with the Leader of the Opposition – he is open to nominations or recommendations on my part but I cannot recommend to myself. The recommendation must come from him to me. And I will make a selection. But the CCJ ruling – and this might have caused some confusion in the media over the last couple of weeks – allows to two sides to hammer out, that is the word they used, hammer out suitable persons for the list. But it means, yes, I could make submissions, but in the final analysis, that submission has to come to me from the Leader of the Opposition, the CCJ has not taken away that role from the Leader of the Opposition and it has not taken away my prerogative to make a selection. Those have been preserved by the CCJ,” President Granger had said at a July 4 press conference after meeting with Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
According to the PPP in Saturday’s missive, the President’s interpretation of the CCJ ruling is both warped and disingenuous.
“…the President misinterpreted the CCJ judgement in casting an enlarged role for himself in insisting that the names he suggests must find themselves on the final list to be submitted to him by the Leader of the Opposition, while at the same time, completely ignoring the gravamen of the decisions in the No-Confidence Motion cases…,” the PPP said.
Further, the Opposition went on to question the Head of State’s utterances on “gridlock” in the hammering out stage, saying that the process is still ongoing.
“We are awaiting an indication of whether the President finds them not unacceptable. (By speaking about a “gridlock”) does it now mean that the informal engagement has been aborted? If so, the President is obliged to invite the Leader of the Opposition to formally submit six names for the appointment of a Chairman of GECOM in light of the CCJ’s judgement quashing the appointment of Justice (rtd) James Patterson,” the Party said in its missive.
Currently, the Opposition is awaiting the President’s feedback on four new names that were presented on Wednesday for consideration.
Already, the President has found four of the Opposition’s names “not unacceptable” to him, meaning they will potentially end up on the final list of six nominees to be submitted to the President for the selection of a new GECOM Chair.

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 Justice Patterson as the GECOM Chair.
However, the CCJ on June 18, 2019, 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.
The Court had also 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 last week, the President’s representatives shortlisted only five of the Opposition’s 11 nominees.
This resulted in a breakdown in those talks after the Government’s side could not say definitively whether those names shortlisted, as well as those suggested by President, are not objectionable to him.
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 of the Opposition’s new names were tabled. Additionally, the Opposition, at the meeting, indicated that the President’s two suggestions of 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 to complete a list of six nominees ‘not unacceptable” to the President, the PPP said they are willing to continue the hammering out process – something which the Head of State also committed to during the televised programme.