Attorney General Basil Williams and a representative of Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo are to meet for clarifying talks on the controversial list of nominees from Jagdeo for Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
This development came after President David Granger yesterday wrote Jagdeo suggesting that Williams meets a representative of Jagdeo on issues surrounding the controversial GECOM list. Jagdeo subsequently agreed
“I would like to propose that, in light of your request for a meeting and in order to avoid further misinterpretation or misunderstanding of this important constitutional matter, Mr. Basil Williams, Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General meet with a person of your choice,” Granger wrote to Jagdeo, yesterday.
Noting that the President’s proposal, was different from the legal clarification which he had promised to provide on the list for a new Chairman of GECOM, Jagdeo said that he will acquiesce to Granger’s request.
“In the best interest of the nation, the Leader of the Opposition will accede to the President’s request, since we are committed to protecting the democratic process, which the Guyanese people so valiantly and tirelessly struggled to establish. It is our hope that this engagement will provide the requisite clarity and will move the process closer to an early resolution,” Jagdeo informed via a press statement.
‘Disappointed’
However, the Oppos-ition Leader expressed disappointment in the missive saying that not only did he believed that the clarifications would come from the President himself, but that a meeting with the person whose interpretation guides the president’s legal articulation, would not afford them the opportunity to give a different perspective and might yield the ambiguity on the initial stance of the matter. But he reasoned that in the best interest of the nation he would submit to the president’s proposal and would be sending someone to meet with Williams.
This newspaper understands that the representative slated to meet with the Attorney General to clarify constitutional interpretations would be Williams’ predecessor and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandall.
“We are disappointed that the clarifications that we requested have not been furnished. We are further disappointed that the President is unprepared to meet with the Leader of the Opposition on a matter of such crucial national importance,” Jagdeo’s statement noted.
“We had hoped that such a meeting would have exposed the President to a view that is different from that of the Attorney General, whom we presume, is advising the President on this matter,” it added.
Giving a timeline of events into the matter, Jagdeo reminded that on the 5th of January, 2017 he received a letter from Granger, informing him that the list of nominees which the Leader of the Opposition had submitted to the President for the appointment of a Chairman of GECOM was “unacceptable within the meaning of the Constitution”. In that letter, the President requested “a new list of persons who are not unacceptable”.
“As a result, by letter dated 10th January, 2017, the Leader of the Opposition wrote to the President requesting certain clarifications on the President’s interpretation of Article 161(2) of the Constitution and a meeting to discuss the matter. This request became of even greater importance because of certain interpretations which the President placed upon Article 161(2) when he spoke to the media at a State House function,” Jagdeo said.
Article 161 (2) of the constitution states, “Subject to the provisions of paragraph (4), the Chairman of the Elections Commission shall be a person who holds or who has held office as a judge of a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in some part of the Commonwealth or a court having jurisdiction in appeals from any such court or who is qualified to be appointed as any such judge, or any other fit and proper person, to be appointed by the President from a list of six persons, not unacceptable to the President, submitted by the Leader of the Opposition after meaningful consultation with the non-governmental political parties represented in the National Assembly.”
While the president has highlighted the legal qualifications stipulated by the constitution, Jagdeo and the opposition PPP/C have noted that it also makes provision for “fit and proper” candidates to be appointed.
Granger himself was nominated for the post under the same proviso by then Opposition Leader Desmond Hoyte, although he has since said that any breaches that may have occurred in the past must not be repeated.
Jagdeo said that last Wednesday, while speaking to the media, the President indicated that the “legal clarifications”, which he had requested would be provided and Granger echoed that stance on the sidelines of a Trafficking in Persons forum yesterday.
Granger told reporters yesterday, “He will get the letter today (yesterday). As I said, it is essentially a constitutional matter. The matter is dealt with clearly in the constitution. I myself did not feel that there was anything that was obscure or unclear so I have asked the minister of legal affairs to examine the letter from the opposition leader, to see if anything that I might have written was obscure. I intend to reply to the leader of the opposition because I can’t find what he needs clarification about.”
When asked about the meeting requested by Jagdeo with him, the President said, “As I said he wants clarification, I don’t think he wants with me. He wants clarification…I think what he meant is he wants the matter clarified and I will provide that clarification. I don’t mind meeting him but as far as I could see (it) is a matter of clarification.”
‘Process over Person’
Pressed on a timeframe for when he will decide that the process is exhausted and select someone of his choice, Granger said “I am obliged to consultations with him (Jagdeo) and I intend to do that. I wouldn’t make any choice until after the consultation is completed…We have had face to face and I don’t have any objection to meeting him again,” the President asserted.
“I am a man of great patience. I mean this is a constitutional matter, it is important to Guyana, so I am not rushing and I don’t want to bring the process to an end without both sides being satisfied and the public of course,” he added.
He also dismissed assertions that he has a female nominee pre-selected saying that he has no predispositions but that his main focus was ensuring adherence to constitutional process.
“Oh no, I don’t have any prejudices or pre condition. I am waiting on the process to work but what I expected, in the first instance, is that the list would have been sufficiently balanced to allow me to make that choice. I don’t have any name at the back of my mind or the front of my mind,” the President said.
The President also rebuffed former President Donald Ramotar on his view that he, Granger, has a moral obligation to explain his rejection without explanation of the list of nominees supplied by Jagdeo.
“The list that was presented to him was not the list of the PPP [People’s Progressive Party]. The Opposition Leader ensured that it went through a process of wide consultation with stakeholders across the country. That ensured that the persons selected were all qualified and any one of them could be a good chairperson,” Ramotar told Stabroek News on Tuesday.
But Granger said that Ramotar should keep quiet on matters of the country as he is not president anymore.
“I think the former President should observe the convention in other countries and not try to comment on current political matters. He had his chance,” Granger said.
