Voters disagree with President on GECOM Chairman

Dear Editor,

In opinion (NACTA) surveys I conducted last month and earlier, a large majority of voters disagreed with the position (interpretation of the relevant clause of the constitution) of President David Granger and his Government that only “a judge or someone qualified to be a judge” can be appointed as Chairman (Chairwoman) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

Voters noted that the constitution makes room for any “fit and proper person”, not only judges, to be appointed as chair, and expressed fear of planned election rigging as a probable reason for the President rejecting outright the list of nominees submitted by the Opposition Leader for appointment of a Chair. They said that the President and the Government seemed to want as GECOM Chair an appointee who would facilitate election rigging, as had taken place between 1966 and 1992 to keep the then incumbent PNC in office.

Voters felt that the President should have made an appointment of chair from the original list of six nominees submitted by the Opposition Leader (Dr. Jagdeo). They noted that at least one of the nominees is a lawyer and is thus qualified to be a judge, meeting the President’s own requirement, and yet he was not appointed; perhaps because of his fierce independence from the Government.

They likewise pointed to another nominee who has considerable experience in the election area and served as an election observer. They also pointed out that none of the GECOM chairs (since introduction of the so-called Carter Formula in 1991) had been a judge or been qualified to be a judge.

They noted that David Granger, himself not a judge, had his name put forward to become Chairman of GECOM. Thus the requirement that the GECOM Chair be a judge or be qualified to be a judge does not hold water, and violates the spirit of the Constitution.

Of the voters interviewed, almost everyone supportive of the PPP and AFC, and the minor parties like URP, JFA, etc. felt the Government wanted to appoint someone who would assist the coalition to win re-election through electoral fraud. Most supporters of the PNC toe the line of their party leadership — that Bharrat Jagdeo did not submit an appropriate list of nominees from which the President could make an appointment as Chair. However, many PNC supporters disagreed with the President that only a judge can be chair; they said that any fit and proper person outside of the judicial and legal arenas could meet the criteria to be GECOM Chair.

A majority of voters felt the President was setting the stage to make a unilateral appointment (rejecting the Opposition nominees) of a judge. This, they said, would violate the spirit of the Carter Formula, which calls for an appointee to be selected from a list of nominees submitted by the Opposition.

Yours truly,

Vishnu Bisram