Lenox Shuman, leader of the Labour and Justice Party, has called for Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice James Patterson to resign.
“The court has found that his appointment is invalid and as such he needs to vacate the office of chairman of GECOM,” Shuman told a press conference yesterday.
Shuman who called a press conference hours after yesterday’s ruling said he wanted to ensure that people understand that his party has a perspective on the rulings since they have a stake in the upcoming elections and therefore everything that transpired in the courts.
Going forward he has recommended that the two sides look at the previous list of nominees submitted for GECOM chair and select someone they can mutually agree to find a way forward.
According to the former Toshao of Pakuri, the court’s ruling did not provide winners and losers but Justice for the nation.
He further argued that the rulings require both leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo and President David Granger to display political maturity before stating that Granger seems to be using GECOM as a “stalling tactic”.
“The President has a responsibility to make a proclamation of a date. GECOM can’t dictate to the president what date they want. The President has the constitutional authority to dictate a date and GECOM has a responsibility to ensure that they are prepared to execute elections on that date. It seems as though the President wants to use GECOM as another stalling tactic to moving this nation forward,” he told reporters.
He stressed that his party has always supported the position that the December 21 no confidence vote was valid and the appointment of Patterson was unconstitutional
“The country footed the bill for an expensive lesson in common sense. There was no need to spend state resources on this case,” he argued, adding that in recent years Guyana has seen two “successful” no confidence motions against different administrations.
“People don’t have confidence in either PPP or PNC,” he stressed noting that by proroguing the tenth parliament, the then President, Donald Ramotar accepted that the motion was successful.
This lack of confidence, according to Shuman, gives LJP a very good chance of being the next administration if they can appeal to voters disenchanted with both major parties.
“A lot of Guyanese are tired of what they have seen from PPP and this administration. We offer them something else,” he stated.
