– PM says body should redirect its focus to business, investment

DAYS after the Private Sector Commission (PSC) received a blistering response from the Chief Elections Officer over demands to halt House-to-House Registration, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo said it should examine its leadership.

“The Private Sector has to examine whether its leadership is pursuing a business agenda or a political agenda,” Prime Minister Nagamootoo said during an interview on 94.1 FM’s Hot Seat Programme.

Noting that some of the Executives of the PSC are closely aligned to the political opposition, the Prime Minister said it is clear that they have now thrown their hats into the ring as political actors. “They are showing disrespect to the Executive because they want to inject themselves into the political arena as though they are a political party,” he said. But the Prime Minister said it imperative that the Private Sector Commission decides on which path it will take at a time when this country is listed as the fastest growing economy in the world by NASDAQ Stock Market with a projected growth rate of 16.3 per cent from 2018-2021.

“It is for them to decide whether they want to pursue a political agenda or they want to pursue the agenda of the Private Sector to work in cooperation and in partnership with the State. Whoever forms the government is not important; what is important is that the Private Sector maintains its role as a pillar of the economy and do not trade that for a political role that is partisan and bias and propagandistic,” the Prime Minister stated.

He noted that the Private Sector is the engine of growth in any economy, and certainly of the Guyana Economy. Here in Guyana, he said the Private Sector has contributed to the country, registering 4.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. He noted that the PSC should be happy with the country’s stability, noting that that stability is an indication of the high level of confidence that is placed in the government.

Guyana’s economy, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3.63 billion, a growth rate of 4.1 per cent in 2018 and 4.6 per cent in 2019, is expected to further grow by 33.5 per cent and 22.9 per cent in 2020 and 2021 respectively, according to the NASDAQ Stock Market. The projected increase is linked to the country’s lucrative oil and gas industry on the horizon.

PSC should not get caught up
Weighing in on the issue, Political Scientist Dr. David Hinds told Guyana Chronicle that the PSC should not get caught up in politics. “One assumes that when the PSC weighs in on political issues, it does so from the standpoint of the business interest of its members and the business sector in general. But I am afraid that the PSC tends to get itself too entangled in overtly partisan political issues,” Dr. Hinds told this newspaper.

He said the issue of House-to-House Registration has become very partisan and entities such as the PSC run the risk of showing their partisan hand which in the end tarnishes their credibility. “The PSC should be urging consensus rather than taking political sides. It is not out of place to conclude that the PSC appears to be fetching water for the PPP. This has now become a worrying pattern by that organisation,” Dr. Hinds noted.

On Monday, the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, penned an opened letter to the PSC, in which he said the Private Sector Commission was misguided into believing that the ongoing House-to-House Registration is unlawful.

In the letter addressed to the Chairman of the PSC, Gerald Gouveia, the Chief Elections Officer explained that the operationalization of House-to-House Registration 2019 is based on the directive of the Elections Commission on February 19, 2019, and by extension Order No. 25 of 2019 dated June 11, 2019.

Lowenfield, who did not mince words in his blistering letter to the PSC, said there should not have been an attempt to question his professionalism in the execution of his duties as Commissioner of Registration and Chief Elections Officer.

“It is appalling that in your opening paragraph, you sought to create an impression that I, Keith Lowenfield, have been avoiding meetings with the PSC. I have never received any such request for meetings. I have noted that all previous requests for meetings were directed to the Chairman of the Commission. You should produce the evidence of your meeting requests and proof of delivery to my office,” Lowenfield told the PSC.

In pointing out that it was the Commission that had directed that House-to-House Registration be conducted, the CEO also reminded the Private Sector Commission of the private criminal charges that were filed against the former Chairman and three Commissioners for their alleged conspiracy to breach the Constitution which provides for elections to be held three months following the passage of the No-Confidence Motion. Those charges, he reminded, were dismissed by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on March 15, 2019.

“Consequently, in all wisdom, my professional posture is to abide by the decisions of the Commission,” Lowenfield told the PSC.

He noted that GECOM’s Legal Officer, Excellence Dazzell, subsequently advised that “in light of the judgement of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on 18 June, 2019, which stated that the process by which Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission was appointed was flawed, every act done by that Chairman (Justice (Rtd) James Patterson) after 18 June, 2019, would be void. However, acts done before 18 June, 2019, would be valid since those acts would have been done on the premise that the appointment was bona fide.”
Dazzell also advised the CEO that because Order 25 of 2019 was signed and gazetted before the judgement of the CCJ, that too, is valid. He made it clear that GECOM Secretariat understands the Constitutional requirements and also the legal premise to operationalize a valid order.

“If I am really to understand the basis of your letter that it is unlawful for the Secretariat to proceed with House-to-House Registration in the absence of a Chairman, I take it that I should wait until a Chairman is appointed before I commence the implementation of any preparatory work for the conduct of General and Regional Elections,” Lowenfield reasoned.
In light of the call by the PSC to suspend House-to-House Registration, the Chief Elections Officer made it clear that registration will continue unless the Secretariat is directed to do otherwise by a duly constituted Commission.

He also rubbished claims that the Secretariat failed to consult with stakeholders ahead of this exercise.

“At a meeting held on 2nd May 2019 with political party stakeholders, the delegation representing the People’s Progressive Party, headed by Zulfikar Mustapha, explicitly stated that they will not be participating in any deliberation on House-to-House Registration since they are not in agreement with the exercise and ‘walked out.’ How then can you question my consultative approach and the credibility of the exercise?” Lowenfield stated in the letter.

He urged the PSC to consider the facts on the operationalization of House-to-House Registration and further advised it to direct all concerns to the Commission whenever it is properly constituted.