President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo will have to meet again; this time to consider 13 potential candidates for the post of Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) after their representatives failed to come to a consensus on six names yesterday.
The representatives of the two political leaders yesterday spent another two hours attempting to “hammer out” a list of names to be submitted to Jagdeo for him to consider and submit to Granger but reached a stalemate and concluded that “the two principals should meet” possibly today if their schedules permit.
Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, told reporters that at the end of yesterday’s meeting five of the Opposition leader’s nominees had been shortlisted while six had been rejected with reason.
He defined shortlisting as “to be submitted for further consideration”; a definition which the opposition representatives seemed to find confusing.
“The definition of shortlisted is problematic. We still want to know and we would’ve hoped today we would’ve learnt which of the five shortlisted were not unacceptable to the President,” former Chief Whip Gail Teixeira explained.
She further indicated to reporters that at this point in the discussion a stage was reached where there were five shortlisted candidates and eight names submitted by the President which the opposition assumed are not unacceptable to him.
“At this stage it was the right time to indicate to the Leader of the Opposition and the President that they should meet each other to review those names and if they so wish they could add additional names until they reach consensus on six names to be submitted,” she said, adding that while they have accepted the rejection of six names and the shortlisting of five they still have no idea if they are acceptable to the President or not so can’t move any further.
Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall was less impressed with the process which he described as “almost farcical”
“We though it better to abort the process as it was not yielding what we thought it would yield which is a set of names that enjoy acceptability of both sides but when five are shortlisted and the government side cannot say that those five enjoy the acceptance of the president and then they bring eight names and they themselves have told us that they are unclear whether those eight names enjoy the confidence of the president it means that this engagement is almost farcical,” he told reporters.
Nandlall further argued that if the five names which have been shortlisted do not meet the acceptability of the President then the rejection of the six by the committee can also be challenged by the Leader of the Opposition.
“If this committee could not have concluded that those five would reach with acceptance from the President then this committee cannot conclusively say that the rejection of those names enjoy the imprimatur (stamp of approval) of the Opposition Leader,” he stressed.
The stalemate occurred less than a day before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is set to deliver consequential orders on the matter of the unconstitutionality of President Granger’s appointment of Justice (Rtd) James Patterson as GECOM Chairman and on the upheld motion of no confidence.
Asked if today’s court orders were considered during their negotiations, Nandlall said both sides had in mind July 12 and tried earnestly to arrive at a position which could’ve been reported to the court but unfortunately failed.
Harmon however insisted that they can report to the court that they have had this engagement and which produced a 13-person shortlist.
“We have had three days here and produced one list of five,” he stressed, even as Nandlall asked “five of what, Joe?”
At this point the joint press briefing became querulous as each side sought to express their different views on the result of the three meetings.
Vice President and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan argued that the opposition was dismissing the eight names.
“They didn’t even wanna touch the eight names. I felt very much cheated…we exposed ourselves in relation to their 11 names but when it comes for them to state reasons why they don’t accept this or that or whatever they don’t want to narrow it down. That is not acting in good faith,” he stated.
Jagdeo has repeatedly noted that any names suggested by the President will be treated in the same manner as those which were suggested by members of the Civil Society which had submitted in excess of 50 names for consideration during 2017.
