— following meeting with President, Opposition Leader
— teams from both sides to ‘hammer out’ names before formal submission

PRESIDENT David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo exited a high-level meeting on Thursday with an agreement to have their respective technical teams hammer out the names of persons for the post of GECOM chair.

This will be done ahead of the formal submission of the final list to the President by the Opposition Leader and both sides expressed optimism that the process will be completed within days.

The Opposition Leader will kick start the process by resubmitting the 18 names from the three lists that were previously rejected, once those persons are still interested in the post.
At the high-level meeting at the Ministry of the Presidency, President Granger was accompanied by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo; Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan; Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams; Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally; Minister of State, Dawn Hastings-Williams; Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence; Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman; and Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon. The Opposition Leader’s team consisted of Anil Nandlall, Irfaan Ali, Bishop Juan Edghill and Gail Teixeira.

Moments after the meeting ended, President Granger, in the company of the director-general, told reporters that his meeting with the Opposition Leader was not only cordial but ended on a successful note with several agreements reached on the process that would result in the nomination and appointment of a chairman of the Elections Commission.

The meeting dealt primarily with the appointment of a chairman for the Elections Commission – a position which recently became vacant after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that Justice (Ret’d) James Patterson’s appointment as chairman, in October 2017, was unconstitutional.

The President and Opposition Leader were advised by the court to meaningfully consult and arrive at a consensus before a list of six nominees is formally submitted for consideration by the President. The process as outlined by the Court was initiated with the meeting.

“So our discussions lasted just about an hour, were clearly focused on the means, not the nomination, the means to be adopted for the nomination and appointment of chairman of the Elections Commission. We feel that unless, and until the chairman is appointed, work of the Commission will not be able to go ahead as quickly as possible,” President Granger told reporters at the Ministry of the Presidency.

He said both parties agreed that the Opposition Leader would be allowed to submit the names of persons previously submitted for consideration, and that he too can suggest names.

PROGRESSIVE
“I think it is a move forward towards the appointment of the chairman of the Commission, and I am confident that once there is a chairman of the Commission, who enjoys the confidence of both the Opposition and the Government, the Commission, itself, will start to function much more smoothly,” the head of state reasoned.

He noted that the Elections Commission, in recent times, was unable to function effectively due to major disagreements and constant walk outs.
“So I hope that is all water under the bridge and Guyanese could look forward to having credible elections in the shortest time possible,” he posited.

While President Granger could not state when they will conclude, he expressed the hope that they can arrive at a decision within days.

The Head of State said the appointment of the chairman of GECOM will be in keeping with Article 161 (2) of the Constitution of Guyana. That Article states that the Commission’s chairman “shall be a person who holds or who has held office as a judge of a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in some part of the Commonwealth or a court having jurisdiction in appeals from any such court or who is qualified to be appointed as any such judge, or any other fit and proper person, to be appointed by the President from a list of six persons, not unacceptable to the President, submitted by the Leader of the Opposition after meaningful consultation with the non-governmental political parties represented in the National Assembly.”

“We are also bound now by the interpretation of the Caribbean Court of Justice, which has spoken twice on the issue of elections, and it was really in obedience to the last injunction by that Court that I decided to meet with the Leader of the Opposition to decide on a way forward,” the head of state said.

The director-general of the Ministry of the Presidency said the leaders have agreed that the process of appointing a new chairman will be completed within the shortest possible time.
“In fact, the President indicated that he would like this process to be completed within days. So what that means, is that the two sides will have to be engaged in what the CCJ calls hammering out the names of persons to arrive at a list of six, which the Leader of the Opposition will present to His Excellency and from which he will choose one person to be named the chairman of the Elections Commission,” Harmon explained.

Harmon said both the President and Opposition Leader agreed that the process must be a consensual one as laid out by the CCJ. He too noted that the Opposition Leader will submit a list of eligible persons within the shortest possible time.

“This exchange of names or this submission of names will also include any suggestion which the President has for inclusion on that list. And once the two sides sit and agree on the list of six, then that is the process that we (will) move forward, that list of six will then go to the President for him to choose,” the director-general further explained.

During the meeting, there were two suggestions placed on the table – a small group of advisors to the President and Opposition Leader engage in preliminary discussions on the names and weed out those which will not find favour either way, or two, the President and the Leader of the Opposition sit and hammer out the names by themselves. “So there are two approaches and we expect that the Leader of the Opposition will write and submit his list of names,” Harmon posited.

ENCOURAGING
Outside of the Ministry of the Presidency, the Opposition Leader said too that the meeting was one of progress. “Both sides agreed, the President and I that this matter is so important that it should be settled in the matter of days, so we are hoping that with good faith, negotiations on both sides that we can resolve the matter of the new chairman of GECOM, within a matter of days,” he told reporters.

He added: “We agreed that both sides with smaller groups will get together to try and hammer out the names.”

Jagdeo reiterated that while the Constitution stipulates that after consultation with Opposition parties in the Parliament he must submit a list of six names to the President, he is not adverse to the President suggesting names of persons for the position.

“So the CCJ ruling did not change the Constitution, and the Constitution of Guyana says six names must originate from the Leader of the Opposition and it must be done only through consultation with the non-governmental political parties in parliament. We are prepared to consider names if the President were to suggest those names in an informal process that hopefully would start with a smaller team over the next couple of days,” the Opposition Leader said.

He noted that he will start the process by resubmitting 18 names appropriately adjusted for persons who may not want to have their names resubmitted. “So we will use those names as a starting point,” he posited.

“Should we not agree on all six names coming from those 18, then we will be supplying additional names. Of course, the President is free to suggest names but at the end of the day we will have to make a determination that they are acceptable to us,” Jagdeo said.
The two sides are expected to meet again soon on the matter. Meanwhile, President Granger, when asked whether Justice (Ret’d) Patterson would be placed up for consideration, said he wished not to treat with that matter.

“Justice Patterson is part of Guyana’s electoral history; I don’t want to go back with that,” the President said.

Nonetheless, he said Justice (Ret’d) Patterson while Chairman of GECOM steered the Commission forward. “I am quite satisfied with his performance, the CCJ ruled and I am not going to go back to that issue,” President Granger said.