By Joseph Allen
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira is being accused of trying to use her powers to belatedly submit two Government-affiliated nominees to contest two seats on the Rights of the Child Commission.
When Stabroek News contacted Teixeira for a comment, she responded through her secretary that she was unaware of the matter.
The election of members for the Rights of the Child Commission is a constitutional responsibility of the Government and requires two youth representatives with Parliament providing oversight over the electoral process.
According to Cluster Head, Clayon Halley, the process entailed Parliament’s Committee of Appointments writing a number of youth groups seeking their participation in the nomination process. Respondent groups are then requested to identify a head for the youth cluster who then manages the next process, which is to form a cluster group who will then determine the dates for nominee submission and the date for the election where two youths will be elected to sit on the Commission.
Thirty-three groups were contacted and Halley was elected as head of the Youth Cluster. The cluster group met on May 29th to decide on the date for election, and timelines for submission of nominees, with June 18th decided as the deadline.
Halley further confirmed that three candidates emerged out of the submission process but said that on the day immediately after the deadline [June 19] he received a nomination from Anil Persaud from a youth group named Equals Guyana and another from Christine Bailey of the Guyana Youth Development Association. Both Persaud and Bailey are government employees with Persaud working out of Teixeira’s Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance and Bailey from the Office of the Prime Minister. According to Halley, Persaud informed him that he was unaware that June 18th was the closing date for nominations. But Halley said he responded by informing Persaud that he was just minutes away from attending a meeting at parliament which was called for the submission of his report as well as a list of nominees.
Halley then said that he received a WhatsApp message from the Clerk of the National Assembly which provided detailed instructions, none of which were constitutionally aligned and were outside of protocol. “I got a WhatsApp message from the Clerk at the Parliament, saying that Minister Gail Teixeira said that she is instructing that the deadline be extended… And, that she [Teixeira] said that she received complaints from several organizations that they were being prevented from submitting their nominations. I asked the Clerk… to send this in writing. I said please ask her [Teixeira] to send me that in writing… this instruction that she is giving and the complaints she is stating that she had from several organizations.” A letter was received by the cluster from Teixeira affirming her request.
No issues
“I responded to the Minister and indicated that the Cluster has had no issues… I indicated that the letter she sent is in breach of the guidelines that we are given because the guidelines state that we have the right to choose a date for our deadline, to choose a date for our elections and the method in which we receive nomination. It also states that if we are encountering problems to reach a deadline, then as the head of the cluster, I can then write to the Clerk and ask that the committee [of Appointments] provide assistance or guidance as it relates to us fulfilling the deadlines. Now, we never indicated that to the Clerk nor the committee that we had issues that we can’t address or we did not address”, Halley said.
Halley said that this is a typical example of the minister trying to use her powers to subvert the process.
“So, what happen is that these two organizations’ representatives, who work for the Minister and the Prime Minister, decided that they are going to use their office, I would say not even their authority, to try and bully their way through the process. The majority of the other young people, who are representatives of their organizations, are saying that we should stick to the rules of the cluster because the committee has no right to dictate what happens within the clusters.
This is something we were all told from the inception of the process when we met with the minister, who said quite clearly that they cannot determine what happens at elections”, he stated.
Halley said that everything was done in accordance with the protocol and the reason for Teixeira’s actions would be because no nominee, representative of youth groups aligned with the government, handed in their nominations.
“Everything was laid out, persons decided to go a certain route but because of the fact that, there is no, I would say quite frankly representative for the Government that has submitted a nomination, the Minister has decided that she is going to use whatever power and authority she has to railroad the process and have her way”, he argued. Halley said that with the process being affected, elections were also affected and everything that is being done is to ensure that the election does not happen.
However, Anil Persaud of Equals Guyana told this newspaper that the closing date for submission was stated as June 19th and not the 18th. He further reasoned that with only three out of 33 youth groups submitting a nominee, there was a consensus from other groups not participating that the nomination day should be adjusted. Persaud said it seemed as though the Cluster Head and others are trying to ensure that there is in no inclusivity.
“It seems as though whatever that was decided upon in that first meeting was set in stone, and having been a part of other cluster nominations under other commissions nominations was done to ensure that they were inclusive and representative as possible. It is just unfortunate that every effort to ensure that the nominations remain as is failed,” Persaud added.
“I don’t appreciate that insinuation [of using his governmental job to influence the process] because what I do for Equals is completely different and separate from my work which is a full- time job. I am not sure how that link is being made.” As a result, Persaud said that his organization has rescinded their nomination since his organisation does not decide by majority vote but works for everyone. He insisted that there should be a rule determining the number of nominees groups are required to submit but agreed that all [youth groups] have to commit to the rules.
According to article 212U (2) of the constitution, the Rights of the Child Commission shall consist of not less than five nor more than 15 members with expertise in issues affecting children, nominated by entities, by a consensual mechanism determined by the National Assembly. The members have to be approved by votes not less than two-thirds of the National Assembly. Members without the right to vote will also be drawn from other rights commissions.
