Even a blind man could see names on GECOM lists didn’t meet criteria- President

President David Granger has dismissed a suggestion made by Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo to amend the constitution to include foreigners as part of the list of nominees for the next Chair of the Elections body.

Pointing out that the compilation of the third list of nominees for the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will be challenging, Jagdeo at a forum on June 14, suggested that himself and the Head of State agree to amend the constitution to include foreign nominees. “There is one part of the Carter Centre formula which says that you are confined to submit only Guyanese. Why not let us jointly amend that part of the constitution to say that we can search around the world, so my list now show people from around the world,” Jagdeo said.

However, the President noted that such a decision is not necessary.

“I don’t think it is necessary, I don’t think it is possible, I don’t think it is desirable,” he said in response to a question posed during this week’s recording of his weekly televised program ‘The Public Interest’.

Asked if there’s a timeline which he is looking at, to have the issue resolved, he said: “this thing could’ve been settled in a week, but the two lists that have been presented to me, were not consistent with the constitution.”

The Head of State pointed out that even after an explanation of his criteria was given, “the second list came, it was quite apparent, even a blind man can see that there were names on the list which could not conform to the criteria that have been laid down.”

The President is currently awaiting a third list of nominees from the Opposition Leader following the rejection of the first two lists.

The two leaders at their Monday, June 12, 2017, meeting, have agreed to put together a high-level team representing both sides to work immediately on exploring modalities to bring a resolution to this matter in the event that the list is rejected.