Dear Editor,
I write in response to letters headlined ‘PPP has embarked on the capture of GECOM’ and `PPP’s capture of GECOM continues unabated’ published on 31.10.’24 in SN and KN respectively. The authors of the letters are GECOM Commissioners Trotman, Corbin and Alexander who represent the interests of the APNU+AFC on the Commission.
The habitual resort to cry foul when the APNU+AFC doesn’t get its way at GECOM is rooted in the mistaken belief that they are the gate keepers for GECOM’s electoral machinery. However, with the gate to GECOM now unchained and wide open allowing for fresh air and new recruits to enter, a sense of electoral insecurity has been created for the APNU+AFC.
Judgement by the letter’s signatories as regards the applicants’ suitability and qualifications to fill vacancies for the posts of Civil and Voter Education Manager (C&VEM) and Logistics Manager (LM) respectively, was obviously not the product of careful consideration on their part.
The APNU+AFC should cease any more chatter about ‘PPP’s capture of GECOM’ since they themselves had embarked not only on the capture, but on a wrecking spree at GECOM during the 2015-2020 period. It began when Mr. James Patterson, was handpicked and in violation of the constitution, made chairman of GECOM (2017-2019). Secondly, while incumbency and experience were emphasized by APNU+AFC as criteria to be successful applicants for the jobs, those very attributes were completely ignored when in 2018, GECOM had to select someone to fill the post of Deputy CEO. The APNU+AFC bypassed Vishnu Persaud and chose Roxanne Myers instead to fill the post of Deputy CEO of GECOM. The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) was called upon to investigate the matter; its Report showed how the PNC ‘captured GECOM.’
At GECOM, as was consensually agreed, the process to shortlist, interview, assess and to select persons to fill the posts of C&VEM and LM managers was profusely democratic from beginning to end. At every stage of the process, all six commissioners participated. Every applicant was given all the time they needed to answer questions posed to them by the Chairman and Commissioners.
At a separate session, commissioners offered their individual assessments of each applicant ending with their individual recommendation for the best qualified person to fill the post of C&VEM and then the LM. The Chair presided over the entire process and shared her own assessment and recommendations for the two posts with commissioners.
At a duly constituted meeting of GECOM, commissioners Trotman, Corbin and Alexander freely advanced the names of their preferred candidates, so did commissioners Narayan, Rohee and Gunraj. There was no coincidence in nominations between the six commissioners on any of the nominees save for the coincidence of nominations between the chairman and Narayan, Rohee and Gunraj. If this process was not democratic, then what is?
No voting nor imposition of preferences took place nor was the exercise corrupted in any shape or form. Therefore, for the three opposition-sponsored commissioners to suggest that GECOM was ‘captured’ by the PPP is to misrepresent a process that was truly transparent and democratic as agreed to by all commissioners.
To appreciate the significance of GECOM’s decision-making process nowadays, it is important to cast our minds back to the 2015-2020 period and let our imagination take flight to a situation where the APNU+AFC cabal is still in power, along with their handpicked chairman, the three APNU+AFC-sponsored commissioners, the CEO, his deputy, and others who are currently before the Court. One can imagine what would have happened were all these persons still in their respective positions at GECOM. In that scenario, it would be no mystery to recognize the backward causes such an eventuality would have served. A cursory look around would show the immense difference with no comparison whatsoever between the Granger and Ali administrations as regards democracy and inclusiveness.
For the three commissioners to accuse the PPP of ‘degutting GECOM of African Guyanese and to corruptly replace them with ‘pro-PPP Indo-Guyanese handpicked by the PPP’ is to throw dust in the eyes of Guyanese and as is customary, to use the racial card as a means to an end.
The APNU+AFC should accept that change opens the door to new and refreshing ways of thinking and innovation far removed from the era of dictatorship, electoral rigging.
Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee