Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday submitted a list of six names to President David Granger from which he could possibly choose the next chairman of the Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM).
Those names are: Chartered Accountant and lawyer Christopher Ram; business executive Ramesh Dookhoo; author, Indian rights activist and columnist Ryhaan Shah; historian Professor James Rose; governance and peace practitioner Lawrence Lachmansingh and former Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force and mining executive Norman McLean.
The nominees, Jagdeo said at a press briefing yesterday at Parliament, were selected following extensive consultations with 30 civil society organizations, representing major sections of society. These include religious organisations from the three major religions, the private sector, the labour movement, women and young people.
The consultations were held after the president wrote his office on November 22. He also had “meetings with each of those persons to ask whether I can submit their names” and they agreed.
He expressed appreciation for their participation and said “the process was not required by law or the constitution but yet we in the PPP thought that we needed to solicit opinions from a broad range of organizations… given the importance of elections and the management of elections and the need to have free and fair elections…”
He added: “We believe that all of these people have the requisite quality to be a good chairperson of GECOM… They meet the constitutional requirement.”
He told the media: “It’s important that we should share with you and the country that today [yesterday] I wrote the President a letter which contained the six names from which we hope that he will choose the next chairperson of Elections Commission.”
He said too that a significant number of the final choice came from the list proposed by civil society. He expects that the president would make a decision speedily.
He said that in the past, the tradition has been that the president would choose one of the names from the first round to head GECOM.
Under the Carter-Price formula for the selection of the Chairman, the Opposition Leader is to submit a list of six names of persons not unacceptable to the President. The President has the option of requesting a second list but observers say that this list offers several viable options for the President.
According to Jagdeo, the candidates recognized the enormity of the task and that they are all “strong and courageous and people who have demonstrated that they are prepared to serve the country’s interest, not partisan interest…”
The new chairman would replace Dr. Steve Surujbally who recently tendered his resignation after being in the post for 15 years and presiding over the 2006, 2011 and 2015 general elections and the 2016 local government elections. The PPP had held several protests and called for Surujbally to resign, claiming the May 2015 elections were rigged in favour of the APNU+AFC coalition government. It has lodged an election petition with the court.
Surujbally had formally indicated to the President his intention to resign from GECOM with effect from November 30th, 2016.
The submission of the list is one of a small number of constitutional engagements between the President and Jagdeo since the 2015 elections. The list will be seen as testing the President’s in determining which candidate is best suited. The President has been snared in the middle of a controversy over appointments to the judiciary by not acting on recommendations made by the Judicial Service Commission.
Of the six names tendered, observers say that Ram and Lachmansingh would be the main contenders and more readily accepted by the President. Ram is a longstanding civil society activist. Of the six, Lachmansingh has wide knowledge of electoral systems having served in the Electoral Assistance Bureau for several elections here and as an international civil servant in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Cambodia and Ghana. He also served with the UNDP’s Social Cohesion Programme here.
Jagdeo’s release of the names yesterday on the same day he had written Granger was seen as upstaging the final day of deliberation on and passage of the 2017 budget in the National Assembly.
