When the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) meets today it will discuss the contents of the Ethnic Relations Com-mission’s (ERC) report into its hiring practices but another report which has proved controversial; a legal opinion by its own Legal Officer Excellence Dazzell has not made the agenda circulated to members.
At last week’s meeting tempers flared after Dazzell tabled the opinion which argues that a new voter’s list is not required. Government-nominated Commissioner Desmond Trotman questioned the “timing” of the tabling but Stabroek News has been reliably informed that both GECOM Chair, retired Justice James Patterson and Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield had been in receipt of the opinion before the April 30 expiration of the voters list.
Trotman told reporters last Tuesday that “we have never agreed at the commission…but suddenly yesterday, last night actually, I saw it for the first time there was some correspondence from her [Dazzell], which included a memo on this matter. And because, as far as I know, there was no agreement on that, I raised it today as a matter of concern. And I pointed out that the way in which it appeared before the commission had to do with some form of deceit by the legal officer.”
He went on to claim that the appearance of the opinion lends to suspicions as while Dazzell claimed she had put together the opinion sometime in April she never told the commission that “she has an opinion in draft” despite the number of times the matter was raised at meetings.
Stabroek News however understands that Dazzell who reports directly to Lowenfield and Patterson is not required to speak at a commission meeting unless directly called upon to do so.
In her opinion, seen by Stabroek News she argues that “based on (elections law), the list must be updated bi-annually by adding persons who are now qualified to be registered, to that list, and those who are no longer qualified to be registered, to be taken off that list….”
She went on to advise that “procedures be put in place to ensure the revision of the list, otherwise the Commission would be acting in defiance of the law and may prejudice any by-election that may become necessary.”
Dazzell’s opinion which was based on her interpretation of section 7. (1) of the Elections Amendment Act (2000) and the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Act of 2018 could prove important as GECOM has repeatedly stated the availability of a valid list significantly affects the timeline within which it can produce a credible election.
If the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) rules for early elections the state of the list will once again be centre stage especially as the government-appointed commissioners continue to argue that house-to-house registration, which creates a new list, is necessary before general elections are held. The PPP-appointed commissioners are opposed to house-to-house registration.
Meanwhile, the ERC report which is scheduled to be discussed has been the source of its own controversy.
The report which was made public on March 19 and tabled in Parliament earlier this month concluded that there was no evidence of any particular ethnicity being given preferential treatment but qualified the finding by saying the Human Resources Manager’s refusal to cooperate did not allow for extensive deliberations to arrive at a more informed conclusion.
The probe which also focused on the controversial appointment of Roxanne Myers to the post of Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO) and found that by all objective criteria and available evidence, the other candidate for the post, Vishnu Persaud, was the most qualified and that he was the first candidate in the history of GECOM who obtained the highest score and had not been appointed. That being said, it also noted that there was no evidence ethnicity played any role in Myers’ appointment.
The four-month inquiry, which ended on November 28th, 2018, saw several persons being interviewed, including the current and former Chairman of GECOM, Lowenfield, Persaud and all six commissioners.
The report said Myers and Human Resources Manager Marcia Crawford did not respond to requests to be interviewed, while current Chairman James Patterson failed to provide promised documentation that he claimed informed his decision to use his casting vote to appoint Myers.
The report describes these actions on the part of the three individuals as “deliberate and willful.”
“Their refusal to assist the enquiry by their preference or by written submissions amounted to a deliberate hobbling of the sub-committee in the production of an informed report,” the committee stressed, before adding that it can also be seen as them “putting their own personal interest above their public duty.”
Specifically the failure of Crawford to assist in the investigation is cited as having prevented the Sub-committee from adequately examining and assessing the allegation of ethnic imbalance that formed part of the complaint concerning employment practices and as well as the allegation of discriminatory employment practices prior to and post November 2017.
