FORMER Deputy Prime Minister and Commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Mr Haslyn Parris, died at the Balwant Singh Hospital on Monday afternoon, leaving his family and friends in a state of shock.His daughter Frances Parris told this newspaper that the senior Paris, 75, was rushed to the hospital on Sunday night. She declined to comment on the cause of his death, noting that Parris was a very private person.
Parris represented the interest of the People’s National Congress (PNC) on GECOM, and resigned from the Commission a month before the 2006 general and regional elections on the basis that his continued participation on the panel would compromise his professional integrity.
President David Granger expressed condolences to Ms. Sarah Paris on the sudden death of her father.

Haslyn Parris was born in Buxton Village, East Coast Demerara, on March 2, 1941 and died at the Balwant Singh Hospital, Georgetown on March 28, 2016, a few weeks after his 75th birthday.

Parris was educated at Queen’s College, Georgetown, where he won the Guiana Scholarship in 1959. He attended the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, earning the BSc (Mathematics), 1962 and the London School of Economics, earning the BSc (Economics), 1966 and the MSc (Economics), 1967.

He served as Chief Economist, Bank of Guyana and Head of the State Planning Secretariat. He was also appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Bauxite Company and later, Minister of Planning and Development and Deputy Prime Minister. He was a member of the Guyana Elections Commission and the Constitution Reform Commission.

The news of his death came as a shock to Chairman of GECOM, Dr Steve Surujbally, who told the Guyana Chronicle that he had spoken to Parris only last week.
According to Dr Surujbally, Parris’s contributions to the Commission were “solid, constructive, far-reaching, far-thinking. “Lots of what we accomplished, the ideas were from him, whether it was about the IT sector or the voter registration.”

The GECOM Chairman said that Guyana has lost an “intellect” who made significant contributions to the country.

“This is a shock; I spoke to him up to last week and asked him to look at the results of the Local Government Elections to see if there was a trend to support one of his theories,” Dr Surujbally said.

He reminisced on a book that Parris wrote and recently asked him [Dr Surujbally] to critique before publishing. However, due to the recently concluded elections, Dr Surujbally did not find the time to put his critique together.

Dr Surujbally recalled that former Presidents Burnham and Desmond Hoyte had great respect and admiration for Parris. Parris leaves to mourn his wife and three children.
Haslyn Parris was awarded the Cacique’s Crown of Honour (CCH) for his public service.