Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh, spent her first day yesterday being briefed on the functioning of the agency by its senior managers and has scheduled meetings with the two sides of the Commission today.
According to Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward, Singh was briefed on the various functions of the respective divisions as the managers sought to deliver a holistic view of GECOM operations.
“Each manager presented on their responsibility. It was basically an orientation for her in terms of understanding how the various departments function,” she noted.
Following the orientation exercise the Chair’s office reached out to both opposition and government nominated commissioners to organize separate meetings.
Opposition commissioners have been invited to meet the Chair at 10:30 AM while the Government nominated commissioners have been invited to a meeting at 2:00 pm.
According to government commissioner Desmond Trotman the 2 pm meeting is not yet confirmed as it is not clear if all three commissioners would be available at that time.
Singh who had signalled that the constitution would be her guide told reporters following her appointment on Monday that she will meet the two sides of the Commission individually before holding a full commission meeting while stressing that she does not believe in “walking out.”
The most recent meetings of the Commission, following the passage of the December 21st no-confidence motion against government and immediately prior to the resignation of the former Chairman, were each cut short when the opposition-nominated commissioners walked out in protest at the commission’s failure to begin preparation for general and regional elections.
These contentious interactions form part of the two main challenges facing the new chair as she will have to immediately address how to handle the CCJ edict that Article 106 (6) of the constitution requires general elections in three months from June 18th, 2019. The new Chairman will also have to preside over a deeply divided GECOM on the question of whether controversial house-to-house registration for a new national register should be halted.
Aware of these issues the retired judge maintained that “I believe in inclusivity. I will speak with everybody. I do not believe in people walking out when there is a disagreement. I believe in sitting down and hammering out the problems, not the media will solve our problems, we will have to.”
