To resign, or not to resign

Dec 12, 2008 Editorial

The PNCR has called on its former member Vincent Alexander to resign from his position as a member of the Guyana Elections Commission. Mr. Alexander, who has campaigned with others from his party for the position of leader, and who was later forced to abandon that challenge in the face of certain perceived irregularities, was not asked by his party to resign from the inter-party task force addressing local government reform. Mr. Alexander, however, resigned from that position.
The call for Mr. Alexander to now step down as a member of the Guyana Elections Commission is without any legal basis. Mr. Alexander is not the PNCR representative on the Commission.
There are no party representatives on the Commission, even though members of the commission may or may not belong to political parties.
This fact must be made clear, lest it be interpreted, quite incorrectly, that the members of the commission are creatures of the political parties that may have been involved in one way or the other in their nomination. This is not the case.
The members of the Elections Commission are not representatives of political parties, and therefore any call for any member to step down cannot be based on this presumption.
The composition of the Guyana Elections Commission emerged out of a compromise brokered by former United States President Jimmy Carter. This occurred in the wake of the total lack of confidence in the pre-1992 Elections Commission.
In an effort to create a more credible commission, Carter proposed the formula where three members of the commission would be appointed from a list submitted by the opposition parties, three would be appointed by the President himself, and a Chairman would be selected from a list of persons not objectionable to the President but submitted by the Leader of the Opposition.
This formula has been entrenched in the constitutional amendments which took place following the 1997 elections.
Under these arrangements, the President can appoint someone other than a judge, but that person must be from a list of six persons so recommended by the Leader of the Opposition after the Leader of the Opposition would have consulted with non-governmental political parties represented in the National Assembly.
It was under this formula that Rudy Collins, Doodnauth Singh, Joseph Singh and Steve Surujbally were chosen as Chairpersons for the Commission.
These persons were not, as some would like us to believe, imposed by the President as Chairpersons. Rather, they were nominated, as part of a list of six persons, by the Leader of the Opposition, after consulting with the other opposition Parliamentary parties.
Apart from the Chairman, the Guyana Elections Commission shall comprise of six persons. Of these six, three are appointed by the President acting in his own deliberate judgment, and three are appointed after the President has meaningful consultation with the Leader of the Opposition, who in turn is obligated to have consulted with the other opposition parties represented in the National Assembly.
It was on the basis of this formula that Vincent Alexander was appointed as a member of the Commission, and he shall remain a member of the Commission unless he decides otherwise and resigns, or unless he is deemed to be unable to continue by way of mental incapacity, or by virtue of misconduct. In the case of the latter, however, there are certain procedures which have to be followed, including the appointment of a judicial tribunal, before a member can be removed.
There have been no charges of mental incapacity or for misbehaviour, and thus there can be no legal basis for any political party to demand for Mr. Alexander to step down simply because of his problems with that political party.

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