THE People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) has labelled as “disrespectful” comments made by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Sase Gunraj, following a meeting between GECOM and President David Granger at the Ministry of the Presidency on Thursday.

The meeting was held to address the topic of General and Regional Elections, and was the first meeting between the government and Elections Commission since Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh took office as GECOM Chairperson on July 29, 2019.

After exiting the meeting Gunraj reportedly called the gathering a “colossal waste of time”. “The People’s National Congress Reform condemns outright the attitude and approach by Sase Gunraj, PPP-appointed Commissioner of Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), following the meeting between President David Granger and GECOM [on Thursday],” a statement from the political party said.

The statement further upbraided Gunraj for lacking appreciation and decency, noting that: “It is disrespectful as a person who holds constitutional office. Clearly Mr. Gunraj lacks the appreciation of decency and fails to recognise that President Granger was showing goodwill and ability to be consultative. It is rather unfortunate that the PPP Commissioner cannot relate to those noble values.”

Aside from Justice Singh and Gunraj attending the meeting, from GECOM, were other Commissioners: Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin, Desmond Trotman, Robeson Benn and Bibi Shadick; and the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield.

The Head of State was accompanied by Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo; Minister of Public Security and Vice-President, Khemraj Ramjattan; Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, SC; Minister of State, Dawn Hastings-Williams; Minister of Social Protection, Amna Ally; Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon.

Prime Minister Nagamootoo has also since registered his displeasure with the statements made by Gunraj, calling him “rude and disrespectful to the executive”.

“Even if it was the first formal meeting between His Excellency, President David Granger and the new Chairman, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, it was indecent of the opposition-appointed commissioner to consider such a meeting ‘a waste of time’ as Gunraj is reported to have said,” said Prime Minister Nagamootoo.

“President Granger exercised his prerogative to have consultation with the new GECOM Chairman and the commissioners, and I cannot see how the consultative process can be a deemed ‘a waste of time’. If the President hadn’t done so they would sing a different tune that he had ignored GECOM. That meeting with the new chairman shows that the President is paying due respect for the independent authority of the commission. This meeting provided an opportunity for the commission to advise the president if they were in a position to do so.”

In Thursday’s meeting, the President assured the commission that government will provide all resources necessary to facilitate credible, free and fair elections. GECOM has already been allocated close to $8B. As part of the National Budget for 2019, GECOM was allocated $5.546B – this sum, however, was supplemented with an additional $3.482B in May, 2019 after the commission indicated to the President that it lacked the financial resources to facilitate early elections.

The chairman assured the President and his government that she will communicate the Elections Commission’s position after meeting with the full commission on Thursday August 15, 2019. The meeting of the full commission will take place one day after Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire is expected to deliver her ruling in the High Court on the constitutionality of the house-to-house registration embarked on by the Elections Commission.

The opposition, through Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram, has challenged the legality of the national registration exercise, and has asked the court to compel GECOM to conduct elections within three months from June 18, 2019 – the day that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) validated the no-confidence motion against the government.
Ultimately, they want elections to be held before September 18, 2019. However, Attorney General, Basil Williams, has informed the High Court that in delivering the landmark ruling and its subsequent consequential orders, the CCJ made it clear that it is not within its remit to issue coercive orders and detailed directives instructing the Elections Commission or the government to act.

Guyana’s final appellate court, he argued, has made it clear that only the President, the National Assembly and implicitly GECOM, can set timelines and dates for elections. Added to that, he alluded to the fact that the Elections Commission has indicated that it is no position to facilitate elections by September 18, and has since (July 20) embarked on house-to-house registration in its quest to generate a credible list of electors.