Yesterday’s statutory meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was brought to an abrupt halt as a result of a power outage while the government and Opposition-nominated Commis-sioners were engaged in a battle over the experience of Vishnu Persaud to serve as Chief Election Officer (CEO).
Persaud, who served as GECOM’s Deputy CEO and Public Relations Officer, is one of the six names shortlisted for the post as GECOM looks to fill the vacancies of CEO, Deputy CEO, Assistant CEO, Chief Accountant, Legal Officer, Logistics Manager, Civic and Voter Education Manager.
Yesterday’s meeting was intended to discuss the integrated shortlist submitted by GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Singh last week. The list contained the names of Persaud, 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 Com-mission (ERC) Commissioner, Deodat Persaud and GECOM’s Information Technology Manager, Aneal Giddings.
Following the meeting, Opposition-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander told Stabroek News that they were in the process of juxtaposing the shortlisted names against the advertised criteria for the CEO post when the blackout interrupted the process. He added that some Commissioners had requested more information on Harrow and Clarke’s experience in the electoral field.
“But as we did that (sifting through the information) it was being argued by others that Vishnu (Persaud) is the only eligible candidate. That argument is based on him serving as PRO for an extended period,” Alexander informed.
The CEO is expected to play the key leadership role of 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 criteria, perhaps the most important shortlisting aspect, stipulates that the CEO is required to be the holder of a Master’s Degree and has 10 years of experience in electoral matters.
Since the listing of these criteria, 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.
While speaking to the experience of Persaud, Alexander related that it is their contention that Persaud’s stint as PRO cannot be assessed as constituting senior electoral management and systems experience.
“The PRO is not a senior management position. In fact, it is not a management position period and therefore you can’t use the years as PRO to argue that the person has electoral managerial experience. That and the fact that Vishnu was really the personal assistant of the Chairman who carried out the functions of PRO. He never applied for or interviewed for the position of PRO,” Alexander argued.
Persaud was initially hired as the Personal Assistant to then GECOM Chair Dr Steve Surujbally in November 2001 and also performed the functions of PRO. He acquired a Diploma in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 2005.
Alexander further argued that Persaud would be ineligible for the post and that issue would have to be thoroughly ventilated before the process can move forward.
‘Only person qualified’
Persaud served in the PRO post for 13 years then moved to the post of Deputy Commissioner of Registration from 2017 to 2017. Along with a certificate in Elections Management and Leadership (level 5) with specific expertise in Electoral Processes, Persaud completed his Master of Business Administration in 2017.
According to government-nominated Commissioner Bibi Shadick, he is the only man for the job if one is to judge against the stipulated criteria.
“The Opposition Com-missioners are insisting that we look for people who met the requirements – the academic qualifications, as well as 10 years training in electoral management and systems and turns out from the 6 names we have from probably 5 of them, do not make it based on that…so far Mr Persaud seems to be the only person qualified for the job. He is the only one that has the academic, election training, training in electoral systems and stuff and years of experience,” Shadick said.
“But what I do know is if there is only one qualified candidate then that candidate will be the CEO. That is to be sorted, decided on,” the Commissioner added.
Shadick, who submitted the six shortlisted names as part of their list of applicants for the CEO post, said that she and her fellow government-nominated Commissioners were willing to interview all of the candidates to give them a fair chance but the Oppo-sition side is insistent on the interviews meeting the criteria.
She explained that of the 20 applications they received, apart from former CEO Gocool Boodoo who later withdrew his application, Persaud is the only person that can be compared against the criteria.
‘Vilifying’
Shadick accused the Opposition-nominated Commissioners of seeking to vilify Persaud.
“The Opposition is trying to vilify and disqualify him in some way but you know I take vehement objections to that. They did the same thing when Mr Persaud interviewed and was ranked for DCEO and he was ranked at the top of the list and they made all of these same spurious arguments,” she said while alluding to the 2018 controversial appointment of former DCEO Roxanne Myers who is now before the City Magistrate’s Court on allegations of electoral misconduct.
In 2018 Persaud was ranked top on the score sheet of the Commissioners after he interviewed for the post of DCEO. However, then Chairman retired Justice James Patterson cast the tiebreaking vote and Myers was favoured over Persaud.
A complaint was lodged with the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) but GECOM did not participate in the investigation.
“We took a complaint to the ERC and Patterson and his people refused to cooperate. They refused to go and give evidence before the ERC so the report was very clear and very damning that this (Persaud) was the most qualified person and was the highest rank. They (Opposition-nominated Commissioners) are on a mission to denigrate, disqualify, vilify Vishnu Persaud but you know what, them saying that does not make it true,” she reiterated.
Shadick related that the GECOM Chair pulled up Persaud’s employment file during the discussion which showed the positions he held within the Commission.
Speaking to the contention that his years of service as PRO cannot qualify as electoral experience, Shadick said she begs to differ and went on to outline that apart from his official designation, Persaud was Civic and Voter Education Manager. She added that he also served as a Training Officer for field staff on Election Day.
“In fact, he acted as DCEO on several occasions and he even acted as CEO during that period. Even though PRO was his designation, the Chairman at the time would give him all these duties and he would do them so he has the experience in doing all the stuff.
“PRO is a senior position. The fact that Vishnu may not have interviewed for that position initially does not make him less of a PRO for more than 10 years. I don’t know what practices they were running at the time but Alexander them were there and they didn’t take objection all that time, they taking objection now because it suits their purpose. I can’t see how they are vilifying a person who served GECOM for so long,” Shadick contended.
During Stabroek News’ research into the shortlisted applicants, it found that 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.
Meanwhile, Petty is a seasoned electoral observer and former Elections Supervisor in St Kitts. He led the Organization of American States (OAS) observer mission to observe 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.
In the case of Aneal Giddings, he 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 the 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.
