The People’s Progressive Party (PP) believes that retired Justice James Patterson should be fired as head of the country’s elections body following his admission that his Curriculum Vitae (CV) to the President did not accurately reflect the fact that he was just the “acting” Chief Justice of Grenada.
“…the President has good reason, good grounds, to unabashedly and unapologetically rescind this appointment based on the misrepresentations made to him,”PriyaManickchand, PPP Executive, declared Saturday.
Retired Justice James Patterson was appointed to the post by the Head of State on October 19, 2017, after he rejected 18 nominees put forward by the Opposition Leader.
Patterson’s CV, distributed by the President’s office, lists him as Chief Justice of Grenada.
The new GECOM Chairman Thursday admitted that he only acted as Chief Justice but “people refer to me, to this day, as Chief Justice.”
“If we were to rely strictly on the words of Honourable James Patterson, his half-truth is a whole lie,”Manickchandstated at a press conference hosted by the party.
She declared that omitting the word “acting” from his CV was, in fact,Patterson lying to the President.
Manickchand pointed out that the job of chairing the elections body relies on transparency.
She likened the issue to one where the Prime Minister or other Ministers of Government acting as the President; she said it will be wrong for them to later say on their CVs that they were President.
She said she hopes the President listens to the people of Guyana “who are heavily against the process” by which the Chairman was selected.
Also appearing at the Press Conference was Opposition member, Bishop Juan Edgehill who sought to dispel claims of race being a factor in the party’s disagreement on the new Chairman.
The PPP said that if Justice Patterson had made an honest mistake, he should have put the issues to rest on the very day they surfaced.
