Following a break after the appointment of Vishnu Persaud as Chief Election Officer (CEO), the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will recommence the process of filling critical vacancies from next week, according to Commissioners Sase Gunraj and Vincent Alexander.
GECOM is currently looking to fill the posts of Deputy CEO, Assistant CEO, Chief Accountant, Legal Officer, Logistics Manager, Civic and Voter Education Manager. Those posts were advertised since early October 2021 along with that of the CEO. The process to fill the vacancy of CEO was a tedious one and stretched for more than three months.
It culminated with GECOM’s former Public Relations Officer and DCEO Persaud being appointed amidst criticisms from the Opposition-nominated Commissioners. They have contended that Persaud is unqualified for the post and have since accused GECOM Chair, retired Justice Claudette Singh of being partial.
The Commission held its first statutory meeting for 2022 yesterday where a decision was taken to recommence the hiring process from next Tuesday. Both Gunraj and Alexander relayed this information in addition to revealing that CEO Persaud also submitted a report to the commission.
“We received a report from the CEO about what he found when he assumed duty and we are in the process of discussing that report,” Gunraj said without going into detail about the contents.
He explained that the report contains sensitive information that cannot be released to the public.
“While I cannot say what is in the report, I can say that we are going to look over the shortlists for the outstanding vacancies when the Commission meets again on Tuesday and will take the process from there,” he added.
The Commission receiv-ed a number of applications to fill the vacant posts and has since shortlisted several persons. The shortlists were presented by both the government and opposition-nominated commissioners and then integrated by the Chair.
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 the possible replacement for the Commission’s former Legal Officer, Excellence Dazzell.
For Chief Accountant Jaiwattie Singh, Abeossa Simon, Orlando Small, Victor Arjune and Ronald Charles were shortlisted while Nardeo Persaud, Tyrone Singh, Marcey Parker, Imran Mohamed Ally, Natoya DeSantos, Paul Jaisingh, Yolanda Ward, Ronelle Arokium, Thalisa Grant-Moore, Abiva Cort, Prem Kanhai, Andrea Sparman, Gordon Barker, Lauretta Smith-Gray, Telitta Franklin, Pamela Nauth and Jacob Corbin were named to be interviewed for the post of Civic and Voter Education Manager.
Paul Sookdeo, Colin April, Duarte Hetsberger, Lawrence Duncan, Terrence Stuart, Preston Paul, Alborn Carbon, Yuvindra Rampersaud, Avinash Bookmohan, Shivnand Ramnanan, Dwarka Bahadur, Kenneth White, Nandram Persaud, David Cole, Bodhan Nipan, Winston Harlequin, Adrian Gangaram, Sharon Harry-Munroe, Noland Jervis, Quintyn Patrick, Mohamed Arjoon, Mellone Frank, Neil Bacchus and Anil Roberts are shortlisted for the Logistics Manager’s post.
The former CEO Keith 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.
