Opposition rejects President’s nominees for GECOM Chair, four new names submitted

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has rejected the two nominees that were suggested by President David Granger for the position of a new Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

The President had shortlisted Attorney Kesaundra Alves and Justice Claudette La Bennett from a previous list of eight he had suggested.

A joint statement from the Government and Opposition Wednesday revealed that the Opposition Leader submitted four additional names to the President for consideration.

According to the statement, “the four names will now be submitted to the President for consideration and the process for the hammering out will continue tomorrow, Thursday.”

Wednesday’s meeting included Director-General at the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon; Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence and Opposition Parliamentarians Irfaan Ali and Anil Nandlall.

President Granger and Mr Jagdeo met on Tuesday where it was revealed that from the list of five persons shortlisted for the post of a new GECOM Chair, the President found four persons to be “not unacceptable.”

A working group was established by the President and Opposition Leader to ‘hammer out’ a list of six persons to be submitted to the President so a new Chair can be appointed but talks between the two sides broke down last Thursday.

The two sides were urged by the CCJ in its June 18th ruling to ‘hammer out’ a list of names to select a new chairman after it was found that the process used to appoint the previous chairman was flawed.