PRESIDENT David Granger has not received a new list of nominees from Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to fill the post of chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Minister of State Joseph Harmon has said.

“I can say to you as of this morning, no list has been sent by the Leader of the Opposition to his Excellency the President for consideration,” Harmon told reporters at his weekly Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The Guyana Chronicle had reported that two judges and a sitting member of the board of GECOM were among names shortlisted to be sent to the President.

They include retired justices Claudette Singh and B.S. Roy. Other nominees are PPP Member of Parliament and GECOM commissioner Bibi Shadick, Attorneys Timothy Jonas and Kashir Khan and environmentalist Annette Arjoon-Martins.

In January, President Granger made it clear that he will choose someone who is fit to be a judge as the new chairperson of GECOM.
During his weekly recording of ‘The Public Interest’, the President revealed that the Constitution is clear on the required qualifications and it is obvious that what the drafters of the document had in mind was someone who had arrived at the position of a judge.
The President made the comments after he had deemed “unacceptable,” a list which the Opposition Leader had submitted.
Having had his first list rejected, Jagdeo then requested that the President explain what he interprets as “fit and proper” before a second list could be submitted.
The letter he (Jagdeo) received on March 16, 2017, detailed the “qualities that the candidate to be Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission should possess.”
As reported by this newspaper last month , Jagdeo noted that he had decided to return to and consult with civil society bodies which had participated in the December 2016 consultations with him.
Late last month he met with 55 representatives of 33 civil society organisations.
The representatives included religious leaders; members of the private sector; trade unions, including the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG); Indigenous organisations, including the National Toshaos Council; the Indian Action Committee (IAC); and the Justice Institute.