THE Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday refuted allegations that their recently held Council elections obtained several breaches as reported by the Guyana Chronicle.

In a statement to the media, the GCCI said it has noted the articles carried by this publication about the conduct of the elections of Councillors at its Annual General Meeting, held at Duke Lodge on March 16 and made it, “categorically clear” that “the procedures followed at its recent elections were open, transparent and fair, and were no different from the procedures followed at previous elections.”

Guyana Chronicle reported that the Chamber’s Executive Director, Kirk Hollingsworth, had acknowledged that there were several breaches in the procedures employed to elect members of the GCCI’s Council and has suggested that independent legal advice be sought.

The Guyana Chronicle had also carried an article on Monday, March 20, where some members have expressed concern about the handling of the body’s election of the 2016/2017 Council last week and have called for a re-run of the election.

According to the aggrieved members, the Constitution of the body has been breached by the holding of the council election on the same day of the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

In the missive written to the Executive Management Committee and seen by this publication, Hollingsworth had said “In light of media reports today and discreet inquiries by some members about the conduct of last Thursday’s elections for new council members, a Special Executive Management Committee meeting was convened at the chamber’s offices this afternoon.”
He continued: “At today’s Special Executive Management Committee meeting (Minutes attached), it was established that there were four material breaches of the chamber’s rules in the conduct of elections to the Council of the Chamber at last Thursday’s (16 March) AGM. The specific breaches are as follows: Rules -7.2C, 8.1, 8.5 and 8.6 (Amended Rules of Chamber attached).”

The executive director noted however that the Special Executive Management Committee acknowledged that the procedures followed at the elections (most likely inadvertently) were hardly different from those followed at previous elections (since 2014 or thereabouts).

“Nevertheless, given the now evident material breaches, the Executive Committee suggested that independent legal opinion (Ronald Burch-Smith or Mark Waldron suggested attorneys), should be sought regarding the way forward in terms of the elections of the new GCCI Council,” the letter said.

Past president, Vishnu Doerga, had told Guyana Chronicle that as far as he is aware, there were no discrepancies in the procedure employed for the election of Council members.

However, on Friday the GCCI said that “a new Council that is representative of the wishes of the majority of those members, who attended and participated in the elections of 16 March, is now in place and the new Council of the Chamber has pledged to ensure that the rules of the GCCI and procedures to be followed in the conduct of all future elections of the Chamber are aligned.”

Additionally, he assured that it will continue to represent the interests of all its members and said it strongly advocate for social and economic development of Guyana.