The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has announced the appointment of Beverley Critchlow as Assistant Chief Election Officer (ACEO), filling one of the several senior vacancies within the Commission’s Secretariat.
The appointment was finalised at Tuesday’s statutory meeting of the Commission, where GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Singh proved to be the crucial vote as government and opposition-nominated commissioners were split on Critchlow’s appointment.
Government-nominated Commissioners Sase Gunraj, Clement Rohee and Manoj Narayan voted to appoint Critchlow as the new ACEO, while opposition-nominated Commissioners, Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman voted against the confirmation. Critchlow previously served as a Returning Officer and Voter Registration Manager at GECOM prior to her retirement.
In a statement, GECOM said that “Critchlow’s appointment emanated from a transparent process that involved all of the members of the Commission, i.e. one in which all Commissioners were availed of the opportunity to interview all of the shortlisted candidates and, thereafter, indicate their respective choice to fill the position.”
The Commission further explained, “…having heard the submissions of all of the six the Commissioners relative to the candidate of their respective choice for the position of ACEO, Justice of Appeal (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, Chairperson of the Commission concluded that Mrs Critchlow’s qualification and experience, as well as her institutional knowledge, placed her at an advantage above the other candidates.”
GECOM said that Critchlow was employed with GECOM for 20 years and acted in the position of ACEO on multiple occasions, the most recent being from 2017-2019. The experience she garnered in the field of registration and electoral processes; having worked in different areas including but not limited to the registration of eligible non-resident persons, non-resident balloting, overseeing the operations of 29 Registration Offices and Sub Offices, preparation of Official Lists of Electors (OLE), extracting names of members of the disciplined forces from the OLE, make her eminently qualified for the post, the statement informed.
GECOM initially advertised for a number of senior posts in early October of last year. Initially shortlisted for the post of ACEO was 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.
However, earlier this year the post was re-advertised.
In a brief interview with the Stabroek News, Commissioner Alexander said that the opposition-nominated Commissioners did not support the appointment because there were qualified applicants prior to the re-advertisement of the vacancy.
“…when we advertise [initially] she was not an applicant. But at some point, the Chairman seems to have said that look we don’t have qualified applicants [and] we need to re-advertise. But at that time we said ‘no, there are qualified people’ and all they [Chair and government Commissioners] said was ‘all right well they [previously shortlisted applicants] don’t have to reapply’ and they went ahead and re-advertised, which allowed her to apply,” Alexander explained.
He maintained that there was no need for the Commission to re-advertise the vacancy, noting that there were more than qualified applicants in the first round. Alexander further stated that following the second round, Critchlow was the only name added to the list of previously shortlisted applicants.
“When we closed the second time she was the only name added on the shortlist. So it was clear that the act of re-advertisement was to facilitate her application,” he lamented.
The final list of shortlisted applicants consisted of six names – Critchlow, Marshall, Jervis, Clarke and April.
One of the applicants for the post is of the belief that the entire process was rigged to favour a predetermined applicant.
“…I do not know why they advertised for the post given they had the person in mind already. The fact that they went out and re-advertised shows that they were not serious about the process at all. GECOM is supposed to be fair and transparent in its operations and it is clear that they are not because they have ended up hiring a retiree while overlooking much younger and qualified candidates that met all the requirements they asked for,” the applicant stated.
