– spokesperson says chairman recovering well
GUYANA Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman, Justice (ret’d) James Patterson was discharged from the hospital last Friday, and is recovering at home where he is being monitored by a doctor.
GECOM Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Warde, has said that Patterson’s condition has been listed as stable.
“We have been assured that his condition is nothing to be alarmed about, he’s in very stable condition, [and] that he has to go by his doctor’s advice to ensure that he has adequate rest.”
Warde was unable to say when Patterson would be cleared to return to work.
“It is only when his doctors advise that he is ready. I do not have a timeline. I hope and trust that the chairman would be in good health and back at work at the shortest time possible,” Warde said.
Notwithstanding the chairman’s absence, Warde believes that it will not significantly affect the current work of the Commission, as Local Government Elections (LGEs) is over.
“At this particular junction I don’t see it having any impact, we are out of LGEs. The Commission is in no critical state that his absence is affecting the work programme of the Commission, if we are speaking presently. If we’re speaking futuristically, I can’t speak on that,” Warde said.
The six commissioners are said to have already been informed that statutory meetings of the Commission are not scheduled to resume until January 8, 2018.
It was late last week that Patterson was reported to have been hospitalised.
Patterson has been serving as GECOM Chairman for just over a year. He was appointed to the post by President David Granger in October last year. The Opposition People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) had expressed reservation on the appointment.