PRESIDENT David Granger has indicated that he has received a letter from the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo in response to his requesting a new list of nominees for the post of Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that meets the requirements of Article 161 (2) of the Constitution of Guyana.

The Head of State indicated that he will respond to the contents of that letter in due course, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency noted Tuesday evening. President Granger had said that the list of nominees provided to him is unacceptable and falls short of the Constitutional requirements. The Article first outlines clearly that the Chairman of GECOM must hold office as a Judge while another section allows for “any other fit and proper person, to be appointed by the President from a list of six persons…” identified after meaningful consultation.

According to the release, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams noted that the determination of what is ‘fit and proper’ is at the discretion of the Head of State and that every person submitted on the list presented by the Leader of the Opposition should meet that requirement.
“All six persons are required to be acceptable to the President. Therefore, if you bring in three of those persons, [who] are not in the range, you are actually reducing the options of the President. So it is beholden on the Leader of the Opposition to always provide a list of six acceptable persons or as they say six persons not unacceptable to the President. He is the decision maker.

“The President is doing nothing wrong. In fact he has invited the Leader of the Opposition to send another list and he can do that several times until the Leader of the Opposition gets it right and he has to get it right, failing which the President will be forced to make an appointment. Of course at all material times he acts in his own deliberate judgement. So it’s entirely the President’s judgement,” the Attorney General was quoted as saying in the release.

Expanding on the legal qualifications set out by the Constitution, where Article 161 (2) on four occasions refers to judge level qualifications”, Minister Williams said that the President believes that the Constitution should be followed thoroughly in the selection of a Chairman for such an important post and if the need arises for several lists to be submitted by the Leader of the Opposition in keeping with the law, then this should be done.
Minister Williams said, “It is entirely at the discretion of the President. The Constitution gives him that power to determine, who is a fit and proper person. The Leader of the Opposition ab initio (in the beginning) really has to address his mind to what the Constitution requires.”