…commentators warn against re-submission of rejected persons for GECOM chair
…say process must be approached in good faith

AS talks on the appointment of a new Guyana Elections (GECOM) Chair are expected soon, commentators have said that the Opposition Leader ought to approach President David Granger in good faith with recommendations of persons who are not tainted.

They are also urging the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, to steer clear from re-submitting persons who were previously rejected as this could cause further polarisation and delay the process. The previous three lists, amounting to 18 names submitted by Jagdeo, are believed to have included individuals with varying degrees of baggage.
Notwithstanding the Caribbean Court of Justice’s (CCJ’s) decision that the process of the appointment of former GECOM Chair, (ret’d) James Patterson by President Granger was flawed, the commentators believe that all efforts should now go towards selecting legitimate individuals. “Persons selected for the list should not have any overt or known association with any of the political parties; this was one of the problems we saw with the previous lists that were provided by the Opposition Leader. There were a number of people on the list who were known to be associated with the PPP…or hostile to the present government,” Political Scientist, Dr. David Hinds stated.

Most recently, Jagdeo has agreed to meet with the President “at any time” and “on a daily basis if needs be” for the selection, something the CCJ had urged should be finalised in mutual agreement.

The first list submitted by Jagdeo in December 2016, included Business Executive, Ramesh Dookhoo; Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Consultant, Lawrence Latchmansingh; Major General (Rtd) Norman McLean; Attorney-at-law and Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram; Professor James Rose and Businesswoman and Indian rights Activist, Rhyaan Shah.

The second list submitted in May 2017 included (ret’d) Justice of Appeal B.S. Roy; Justice William Ramlal (ret’d); Attorney-at-law and a Former Magistrate, Oneidge Walrond-Allicock; Attorney Kashir Khan; Attorney Nadia Sagar and Captain Gerald Gouveia.
The third list, submitted in August 2017, comprised retired Guyana Defence Force Major General, Joseph Singh; Former magistrate, Krisndat Persaud; attorneys Teni Housty and Sanjeev Datadin; pilot and biodiversity advocate Annette Arjoon-Martins and Adventist pastor and agriculturalist, Onesi La Fleur.

Some of the names included on the lists for which questions were raised included Dookhoo, who, during the period in which he was named, was fingered among those being probed by the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) for connection to the Pradoville Two land scam which took place under the PPP. Dookhoo acknowledged to reporters in March 2017 that while he was indeed the owner of a plot of land at Pradoville 2, he was eager to give it up to avoid further embarrassment.

At the time, he was represented by Attorney Sanjeev Datadin who, fast forward to 2019, is representing former Alliance For Change (AFC) parliamentarian Charrandas Persaud and has been a known public critic of the current administration.

Persaud is now widely known for crossing the floor of the National Assembly on December 21, 2018 to vote alongside the PPP in hopes of toppling the current government with his vote following the debate of the no-confidence motion against the government.
Datadin also stood by the side of Jagdeo in March 2017 when the Opposition Leader was held at the Headquarters of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) in relation to the Pradoville Two land scam.

Also on Jagdeo’s previous list was Ram, who was first among those who took up the case to challenge the government on the no-confidence vote. Ram, almost daily, has been critical of the government in matters of oil and gas; governance issues and other areas.
Others like Dr Rose served as a PPP candidate in two consecutive elections while (ret’d) Justice Roy was one of the Appellate judges who upheld the High Court decision that would have allowed Jagdeo to run for a third term as President .

Set criteria
In efforts to guide Jagdeo in a selection of a workable list, President Granger, in March 2017, had laid out a set of criteria for selection which included no political affiliation and the general characteristics of honesty, integrity, faithfulness, and diligence.
The President had also requested and reviewed the curricula vitae for the individuals nominated to fill the post of GECOM Chair. Eventually, being caused to reject the second list, the President stated: “We examined the qualifications very closely and in the end it was clear that the list, as a whole, did not conform to the criteria as laid down in the Constitution or the list of criteria, which was established… I expect that he [Jagdeo] would go back to the drawing board and produce a list which conforms to those criteria. I’m quite serious. It’s an important appointment and I think it must be taken seriously.”

Preliminary meeting

In moving forward post CCJ-ruling, Dr. Hinds believes that there should be a preliminary meeting between the two leaders from which a large group of names will be selected and these will be narrowed down in subsequent meetings. “If you do that, you reduce the possibly of the process being stalled,” he reasoned. Other criteria he listed which should be considered were competency; a track record of public service; integrity and impartiality.
Speaking to the latter, he stated: “It is very difficult in our society, given our political and ethnic problems, to find someone who doesn’t have a political view one way or the other. But, I think there are people, who despite of their political views, can be neutral.”
Track record of integrity

Meanwhile, former GECOM Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally also told the newspaper on Wednesday that the selected Chairman should be a person with a “track record of integrity” and someone who will be “fair to all parties concerned”.

At the same time, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis, while steering clear of pronouncing on the perceived affiliation of those on the previous list, said that “polarisation” would be created if previous members of the lists were to be re-selected.

“They [the previous 18] must not be re-submitted; it can cause polarisation and gridlock with the entire process,” Lewis cautioned. “Whatever the opinion of people about those 18 names –some may not be able to be proved and some may be just people’s impressions about the individuals— put that aside…what should be done is to go outside of those names and come with fresh names.”

He believes that any perceived conflict of interest must be properly measured while there must be clear criteria for the determination of such. “If we are going to move this process beyond where it is, we ought not to do anything that can derail the trail or create gridlock in the system,” he said.

The GTUC head believes that there are many in society who can be agreed upon by the two leaders. On Monday, the CCJ had urged the political leaders to maturely come to a consensus on matters relating to the holding of elections. Dr. Hinds also agreed that for the Opposition Leader to re-submit the previous names would be to challenge the process further. “Since the President already said the first time around that he does not find any of these people acceptable, to put them on another list is to prejudice the process before it starts,” he said.

He hopes that, moving forward, the two leaders can put aside Party differences and act in the interest of the people and in good faith. He stated: “The responsibility of the nation is on their shoulders and to correct this problem calls for action that goes beyond partisan considerations.”