President David Granger has nominated eight persons for position of Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) including the former controversial holder of the post, Justice James Patterson.
The other nominees are Stanley Ming, Kesaundra Alves, Dr Aubrey Armstrong, Kadim Khan, Kim Kyte-Thomas, Justice Claudette La Bennett and Justice Stanley Moore.
The President made nominations after Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said that in keeping with the CCJ ruling of June 18 he would be prepared to consider nominees though he will have the final say on the list to be submitted.
Representatives of President Granger and Leader of the Opposition, Jagdeo, will met this afternoon at Castellani House to discuss nominations for the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
A release from the Ministry of the Presidency today said that this meeting follows last Thursday’s meeting between President Granger and Jagdeo at the Ministry of the Presidency where the means of selecting a new Chairman of the Elections Commission was discussed.
Today’s meeting, the release said, is in keeping with the Caribbean Court of Justice’s ruling which said the two sides should work together to produce a list of persons to be considered for the post.
President Granger was represented by Vice President and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan; Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence and Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon.
Jagdeo was represented by Gail Teixeira, Juan Edghill and Anil Nandlall. The release said that the two teams will meet regularly to ‘hammer out’ the names of persons to arrive at a list of six which the Leader of the Opposition will present to President Granger and from which the President would choose one person to be named as GECOM Chair.
On Saturday, Jagdeo submitted a list of 11 names drawn from the 18 he had previously submitted but which had been rejected by Granger. The eleven are Annette Arjoon-Martins, B S Roy (retired Justice of Appeal), Gerry Gouveia, Joseph Singh (Retired Major General and former GECOM Chairman), Kashir Khan (attorney), Krisndatt Persaud (former Senior Magistrate), Lawrence Lachmansingh, Norman McLean (Retired Major General), Onesi La Fleur, Ramesh Dookhoo,” said a letter, dated July 6th, from PPP/C executive Gail Teixeira to Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon.
The release noted that Granger had said at a press briefing on Thursday that the Leader of the Opposition is free to submit the names that have already been submitted on the past three lists and he has also agreed to confirm that those persons are still willing to have their names forwarded.
“So, the names that have been submitted before are not eliminated…the process which has been identified by the CCJ allows the President to make submissions in the form of this `hammering out’ that the CCJ has enjoined us to adopt. So that is as much as we have achieved. I think it is a move forward towards the appointment of a Chairman of the Commission and I am confident that once there is a Chairman of the Commission, who enjoys the confidence of both the Opposition and the Government, the Commission itself will start to function much more smoothly. So, I hope …that we can move forward now and Guyanese can look forward to credible elections in as shortest time as possible,” the Head of State said.
