Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon yesterday blasted the selection of Vishnu Persaud as new Chief Election Officer and accused Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson Justice (ret’d) Cluadette Singh of partisanship by endorsing his candidacy.
“The Chairman of GECOM has shown that she cannot be impartial and is willing to continue to use her position to further place the entire GECOM into a tenuous position. Guyanese confidence in GECOM has been struck another blow by this political decision by the Chairman of the Elections Commission,” Harmon said in a video statement released following the announcement of Persaud’s impending appointment.
Justice Singh used her casting vote yesterday to endorse the selection of Persaud over Jamaican Leslie Harrow, who was also shortlisted to the fill vacancy. Opposition-nominated commissioners were against his selection.
Speaking on behalf of the main opposition coalition APNU+AFC, Harmon decried Persaud’s selection as being “an obvious political decision,” while charging that it clearly ignored the requirements set out by GECOM in its advertisement to fill the vacancy.
In a statement on Persaud’s selection that was issued yesterday, GECOM said Justice Singh, in justifying the reasons for endorsing him, posited that having heard the Commissioners and having read the endorsement of the former Chair-man Dr Steve Surujbally, she was of the view that he had acquired institutional knowledge having been employed with GECOM for 17 years.
“Justice Singh posited that Mr. Persaud is knowledgeable not only with the understanding and management of the work of the CEO’s office and the operational functions of the Secretariat but also with the geography of Guyana’s ten (10) Administrative Regions,” the statement added.
In response to the Chairperson’s reasoning, Harmon accused her of shifting the goal posts and changing the rules to suit the governing PPP/C as he maintained that Persaud was not the best qualified person for the job.
Against this background, Harmon put Persaud on notice that in the performance of his duties he would be held to the standards of fairness, including non-partisan, unbiased and transparent decision-making. “That will be the [standards] by which he will be judged by us,” he said.
