Months after the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) concluded the hiring of its Chief Election Officer (CEO), the elections body is now recommencing the process to fill the other key positions.
GECOM is currently looking to fill the posts of Deputy Chief Election Officer (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 that ran for more than three months.
It culminated with GECOM’s former Public Relations Officer and DCEO Vishnu Persaud being appointed. At the first meeting of 2022 held on January 04, the Com-mission decided that a subsequent meeting would address the shortlisting of the applicants and set dates for the interview. However, that is yet to be realized.
The Commission met yesterday and government-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj related that they have started looking at the applications. He said that the Commission has begun cross-matching the applications against the required qualifications and experience.
“We are shortlisting and we have also set up some interviews for this week. So we are hoping to get that done soon,” he related.
On the preliminary shortlist are Melanie Marshall, Neil Bacchus, Mohamed Arjoon, and Deodat Persaud for the DCEO post.
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.
GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Singh had 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. Hetsberger was recently let go from the Commission after Persaud chose another personal assistant.
Meanwhile, Gunraj said that CEO Persaud also pitched dates for the commencement of continuous registration in preparation for Local Government Elections.
“The CEO gave us some dates that we now have to work into a time frame for continuous registration to compile the list for Local Government Elections. That we have to make a decision on,” he said.
Local Government Elections were constitutionally due at the end of last year but GECOM was without a Chief Election Officer and could not have prepared to host the elections. As such, the Chair wrote to the government informing of such but did commit to confirming a timeline after the appointment of a CEO.
The opposition has been contending that the voters’ list is bloated and should be addressed before the hosting of another election.
The deferral of the elections interrupted the sequence of two consecutive elections which were held under the APNU+AFC administration. After winning the 2015 general elections, the APNU+AFC government held LGE in 2016 after a 22-year hiatus under PPP/C governments. The elections were held again in 2018 and were due last year.
