The long-awaited decision to fire Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers, and Region Four Returning Officer for General and Regional Elections 2020, Clairmont Mingo, has received much praise despite the one-year delay.
It is no secret that the general view is that public trust in the GECOM Secretariat has been eroded significantly following the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, hence there should not even be any question regarding the need for the entire Secretariat to be fixed before it engages in any activity in relation to holding an election; whether it is house-to-house registration, updating the National Register of Registrants’ Database etc.
The President himself – being the candidate who was forced to wait five months before he was declared winner of the March 2, 2020 polls, even though it was clear that his party had won – has stated firmly that GECOM cannot undertake another election – that is, the upcoming Local Government Elections – without first fixing the system itself, which must deliver those elections to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.
However, despite the Opposition APNU/AFC coalition’s push to keep the infamous trio at GECOM, it was always known that Guyanese would have not accepted such an imposition.
Further, like many stakeholders, we believe there is need for electoral and constitutional reforms to avoid “brinkmanship” and a recurrence of the high level of political crisis that gripped the country from March to August of 2020.
However, we support the view that such a process must be driven through consultation, with citizens getting an opportunity to have a say in the changes they would like to see implemented.
The time has come for all stakeholders to seriously commence talks regarding reforming GECOM – and the first of the many steps was taken on Thursday – meaning, its entire operational structure, starting with the manner in which the Chairman and Commissioners are appointed, and the way the Secretariat functions.
It is clear that confidence in the CEO and other senior staff of the organisation was not lost, and despite the year-long delay and the pushback to block and stop the inevitable, the decision was finally taken.
We welcome Commission Chairperson Justice Claudette Singh’s reasoning when she said on Thursday at the dismissal hearing about Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo:
1. that although they hold public/statutory office, they are not public but rather contractual officers. They have no security of tenure, and their respective contracts stipulate the terms by which they are bound;
2. That these officers exercise the right to enter their respective contract willingly and voluntarily, and were therefore aware of the method of termination provided by the respective contracts;
3. That it is trite law that not even a court of law can enforce a contract for personal services against an employer terminating the contract of an employee, since the proper relief for a breach in an employment contract for personal services lies in damages;
4. That in relation to the CEO, clause 9 of his contract stipulates that his services can be terminated by giving him three months’ notice or payment in lieu thereof;
5. That in relation to the DCEO and the RO, their contracts stipulate that the Commission may, at any time, terminate their employment by giving them three months’ notice or payment in lieu thereof.
Now that the first step towards reform has been taken, GECOM must strive to rebuild public trust. Its officers must be seen as credible and working on behalf of the nation in every respect. In essence, every stakeholder in the country must have confidence in that organisation’s ability to carry out its mandate in a manner that could withstand public scrutiny.
