Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) retired Justice Claudette Singh has called a meeting of the Commission tomorrow to discuss the final shortlist of applicants for the seven advertised posts within the Commission’s Secretariat.
This meeting was called after the Chair circulated her integrated list of applicants for the posts. The names on the integrated list were derived from two shortlists submitted by the government-nominated Commissioners and the Opposition-nominated Commissioners.
Those lists were submitted last week and at Tuesday’s statutory meeting, Justice Singh promised to peruse and compile the integrated list which she would subsequently circulate to the six Commissioners. The integrated list was sent out on Tuesday night.
GECOM is currently looking to fill the posts of Chief Election Officer (CEO), Deputy CEO, Assistant CEO, Chief Accountant, Legal Officer, Logistics Manager, Civic and Voter Education Manager.
Justice Singh’s integrated list listed the six names, submitted by both sides of the Commission, for the post of CEO. Those names were drawn from the 20 applications that were received and includes 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; Dr Kurt Clarke from Texas; former Deputy CEO and 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.
The opposition side did not name any local persons to fill the post of CEO.
The integrated list included the names of Melanie Marshall, Neil Bacchus, Mohamed Arjoon, and Deodat Persaud for DCEO essentially including all the names that were submitted from both sides.
Delon Clarke, Noland Jervis, Melanie Marshall, Paul Jaisingh, Mohamed Arjoon, Neil Bacchus, Deolall Ramlall, Deodat Persaud, Natasha Grenion Dipchand, Andrea Sparman, Duarte Hetsberger and Colin April were shortlisted by the Chair to be considered for the post of ACEO.
Additionally, attorneys at law Shareefa Parks, Kurt DaSilva, Kimberley Yearwood and Felicia Toby were listed as a possible replacement for the Commission’s former Legal Officer Excellence Dazzell.
The Chair named 5 persons to be interviewed for the post of Chief Accountant, 17 for Civic and Voter Education Manager, and 24 for Logistics Manager. Applicants for the Logistics Manager post include former acting Town Clerk for the Municipality of Georgetown, Sharon Harry-Munroe and former CEO Keith Lowenfield’s personal assistant Duarte Hetsberger.
Uncertainty
There seems to be some uncertainty on what is the purpose of tomorrow’s meeting with Commissioners on the government side saying that the list submitted is and should be the final shortlist while their colleagues on the Opposition side are saying otherwise.
Government-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj confirmed that the Chair requested a meeting for tomorrow.
“I am saying that this list should be the final list but the other side is saying … otherwise. I am also saying that Friday’s meeting is to set up the modality for the interviewing process including the evaluation methods,” he told the Stabroek News during a telephone interview yesterday.
However, on Tuesday, Opposition-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander related to this newspaper that the integrated list would have to be scrutinized to ensure the final shortlist of persons meets the criteria set out by the Commission.
Based on the criteria, the CEO is required to be the holder of a Master’s Degree and have 10 years of experience in electoral matters. The CEO would be 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 among other responsibilities.
“We have criteria which the Commission has established and those (government-nominated) Commissioners were integral towards establishing those criteria and we now have to make sure that the final shortlist meets the requirements as were agreed to by the Commission. We are not refusing to interview anybody, we are calling for a process that is transparent. A process that will allow the Commission to determine that only persons who are qualified are on the final shortlist,” Alexander had said.
When contacted yesterday, Alexander maintained that his understanding is that Friday’s meeting will be for the finalization of the list of potential interviewees.
“Friday’s meeting will be for us to go through the integrated list that the Chair sent and judge the names based on the criteria we agreed upon. Then we would put together the final shortlist which we would then go on to discuss the process to conduct those interviews. I don’t know anything about this integrated list being the final list,” Alexander argued.
The former CEO Lowenfield and his Deputy Roxanne Myers had their contracts terminated in August after allegations of misconduct were levelled against them. They are currently before the City Magistrate’s Court defending the charges of alleged criminal misconduct during the 2020 general elections.
