Opposition-nominated GECOM commissioners have shortlisted only three overseas applicants for the post of Chief Election Officer (CEO) while the government side has selected these persons in addition to three Guyanese including two currently working in the electoral system.
When deliberations begin next week on the candidates, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh SC will likely have a key say on who will be on the final list for consideration.
Director-General of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and Regional Manager at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, Leslie Oliver Harrow; St Kitts Election Official Eugene Godfrey Petty and Dr Kurt Clarke from Texas were among the initial 20 persons who applied for the post. They are now among the six names shortlisted as GECOM gets the process of interviewing underway.
At Tuesday’s statutory meeting, GECOM decided that the government-nominated Commissioners and Opposition-nominated Commissioners would submit lists of names for the seven advertised posts – CEO, Deputy CEO, Assistant CEO, Chief Account-ant, Legal Officer, Logistics Manager, Civic and Voter Education Manager – following which a final list would be compiled with names receiving bipartisan support and the other names debated before adding to the final lists.
In addition to the three foreigners, the government-nominated Commissioners submitted the names of former GECOM Public Relations Officer Vishnu Persaud, GECOM Assistant Registration Officer and former Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) Commissioner Deodat Persaud and GECOM’s Information Technology Manager Aneal Giddings for CEO. The Opposition-nominated Commissioners – Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman – only submitted the names of the foreigners.
The other applicants for the post included controversial former CEO Gocool Boodoo who was stopped from proclaiming an extra parliamentary seat for the PPP/C in 2011 and former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Presidency Omar Shariff who was fired in 2016 after being accused of accumulating a substantial amount of wealth which was inconsistent with the salary of a public servant. Boodoo later bowed out of the race.
Attorney at law Saphier Husain; Christopher Chan; Colin Thompson; Nyall Jodhan of The Citizen’s Initiative (TCI) – a party that contested the March 2020 elections; Dr Stanley Paul; Dr Hubert Maloney; Abushameer Khan; Simone Beckles; Jainarine Singh; Ronald Singh; Amar Panday and Dr Breysha Saskia Solomon also applied for the CEO post.
For the post of DCEO, the government-nominated Commissioners submitted the names of Deodat Persaud, Neil Bacchus, Melanie Marshall and Mohammed Arjoon while their counterparts on the other side submitted the names of only Persaud and Marshall.
Meanwhile, Marshall, Persaud, Nolan Jervis and Deolall Ramlall received bipartisan support for the post of ACEO along with additional names from both sides.
Government-nominated Commissioner Bibi Shadick, during a telephone interview with Stabroek News yesterday, related that they have submitted shortlists for all the advertised posts and are waiting on the Opposition-nominated members to do the same. Sources close to the Opposition team related that the names will be submitted on or before Tuesday’s statutory meeting.
Randomly
While confirming the names on their shortlists, Shadick made it pellucid that, contrary to reports in the press, there is no one person leading their lists rather the names were just listed randomly.
“I submitted a shortlist to which my fellow government Commissioners have subscribed. So there is a shortlist from the government Commissioners but the shortlist that we submitted is shortlisting for all seven positions that were advertised. The Opposition, the three commissioners together, submitted a shortlist for the CEO, DCEO and ACEO positions so far. I also saw reports that our lists have a leader but I want to say that I know nothing of one person leading the lists,” she said.
Shadick added that when the Commission meets on Tuesday they would be going through the lists to come up with a final list of names to determine those that would have to be interviewed for the position.
“Those lists are with the Chairman. It is my understanding that the Chairman (ret’d Justice Claudette Singh) also has some list because she went through the things (list of applicants) too. My understanding is that she will put the list together and come up with one list,” she added.
Commenting on the Opposition’s list for the post of CEO, Shadick accused them of bypassing the Guyanese who are competent for the job and favouring just foreigners.
“My impression is that they (Opposition-nominated Commissioners) first wanted foreigners to conduct the interview process and now they want foreigners to run our elections,” she said while referencing the Opposition’s proposal to deviate from the traditional hiring process and introduce an independent panel to conduct the interview process.
The process used for hiring the CEO and DCEO has been under intense scrutiny following the allegations of misconduct against former CEO Keith Lowenfield and DCEO Roxanne Myers. They are both before the courts on various charges.
Traditionally, the process employed for hiring the CEO and DCEO involves the GECOM Commissioners interviewing the shortlisted candidates and scoring them using a standard scoring sheet. They then bring the scores to the full Commission and make recommendations following which a vote is taken and the successful applicant is appointed to the post.
The proposal for an independent or mixed panel was rejected last week when the Commissioners met.
Based on the advertisement, the CEO is required to play the key leadership role in GECOM’s Secretariat and is tasked with the responsibility for implementing all aspects of its operations, and ensuring that results achieved are consistent with the laws of Guyana and the policies determined by the Commission.
The successful candidate is responsible for advising the Commission on policy matters and their implementation; the interpretation of relevant legislation, and reports on their applications among a plethora of other responsibilities required for the day-to-day functioning of the Secretariat.
The CEO is also required to be the holder of a Master’s Degree and have 10 years of experience in electoral matters. The Opposition-nominated Commissioners have said that the 10 years’ experience presents itself as a method to weed out outside applicants and cater to just those that would have worked at GECOM.
In relation to the shortlisted applicants for the post of CEO, Harrow and Petty hold significant experience in electoral management. . Harrow has held a number of positions within the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) and was just last year appointed as Director-General of Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).
He is said to have over 25 years of experience working in the field of administration and governance. Harrow spent over 18 of those years with the ECJ. He started as an Office Manager in 1997 and served there until January 2001. In 2002, he returned to the ECJ as the Regional Manager and served up until May 2017.
As Regional Manager at the ECJ, Harrow was responsible for the management of 9 constituencies for General Elections in 2002, 2007, 2011 and Local Government Election 2003 and 2012 & UWI, Mona and Utech, Jamaica – Students’ Union Elections from 2003 to 2015.
In June 2017, he moved up as Zonal Manager. He was seconded to the ODPEM for 7 months.
Petty is a seasoned electoral observer and former Elections Supervisor in St Kitts. He led the Organization of American States (OAS) observer mission to the 2006 General and Regional Elections in Guyana. Petty also served as Director of the CARIFORUM Directorate.
The other foreigner, Texan Dr Kurt Clarke is said to be an attorney.
Deodat Persaud is currently employed with GECOM as an Assistant Registration Officer and has been there for 16 years. He also served as Commissioner with the Ethnic Relations Commission. He is the holder of a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and a Master of Business Administration.
Vishnu Persaud was bypassed, though he was scored higher than his contenders, for the post of DCEO in 2018 after a vote of then GECOM Chair Justice (retired) James Patterson. The job was given to Roxanne Myers.
Vishnu Persaud was first employed by GECOM in November 2001 as the Public Relations Officer (PRO) and served in the post for almost 13 years. He then moved to the post of Deputy Commissioner of Registration. He is the holder of a Diploma in Public Relations and has a certificate in Elections Management and Leadership (level 5) with specific expertise in Electoral Processes. In 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile, he completed his Master of Business Administration.
Giddings has been employed with GECOM since July 2018 as the Information Technology Manager. Notably, he does not meet the 10 years’ experience requirement as stated in the Commission’s advertisement. He is the holder of a Master of Science Degree in Project Management from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus.
At GECOM, he is responsible for the implementation and management of the electronic systems for the national register of voters, production of national and local electoral lists, implementing and managing systems used for validation of nominees for national and regional elections, overseeing the development and production of sensitive electoral material used on Election Day and managing electronic tabulation of votes cast at elections for use in the declaration of results, his LinkedIn profile states.
He also has experience in the implementation and oversight of electronic systems used for the production of national identification cards.
Giddings had worked at the Foreign Affairs Ministry as a Systems Development Coordinator from 2009 to 2017.
