The Carter formula has become a constitutional convention

Jan 08, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The international community should be alerted to the possibility that the government of Guyana may be attempting to circumvent constitutional conventions, in relation to the appointment of the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission. The international community must be put on alert over the possibility of the government circumventing these conventions which have been in place for more than twenty-five years.
The government is speaking about consultations in the process of appointing a Chair of GECOM. The law makes no such prescription. The law was amended to facilitate the appointment of a Chair of GECOM, who has to be drawn from a list provided by the Leader of the Opposition and who is not objectionable to the President.
The law was inelegantly amended to implement this formula which became known as the Carter formula, and all chairpersons of GECOM since 1992 have been appointed based on this convention.
The Carter formula was an outcome won by the democratic forces in Guyana after waging a long fight for free and fair elections and the machinery to deliver such a result.
The campaign for free and fair elections in Guyana reached its zenith in 1990 when a highly padded electoral roll was produced by the then Guyana Elections Commission. But the then opposition, unanimously were of the view that there had to be a new model for the Guyana Elections Commission, and that the then Chairman Harold Bollers had to go, because he had lorded over fraudulent processes. There was also a demand for the votes to be counted at the place of poll, so as to reduce fraud, and the centralized counting of ballots which had been responsible for such fraud.
This is how the Carter reforms came about. The then President Desmond Hoyte agreed to a number of reforms to make the electoral process fairer and more transparent. These reforms included a change in how the Guyana Elections Commission was constituted and how the Chairman was selected.
Prior to the reforms, it was the President who chose the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, who was required to be a person who is or was a judge in a court of unlimited jurisdiction in the Commonwealth. The Carter formula was interposed on this proviso to provide for the President to choose from a list of six names provided by the Leader of the Opposition. All of the Chairmen of GECOM over the past twenty-five years have been persons chosen from that list. It is the established convention, and it has now become a constitutional rule by virtue of convention and unbroken practice.
The government has recently hinted that there could be consultations on the appointment of a Chairperson. The Constitutional convention, however, is that the President must choose someone who is not objectionable to him from the list provided by the Leader of the Opposition.
If there is no one that is agreeable on that list, then it is only right that the Leader of the Opposition is so informed and asked to submit another list of persons from which a name, not objectionable, to the President is chosen. This is the basis of the Carter formula. There is no need for consultations on this matter. The convention is clear and must be upheld.
Guyana will be sliding down a slippery slope if there is a deviation from this practice. The talk about consultations should therefore be muted. Democratic-loving Guyanese fought hard for the right to an independent Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission.
The Carter formula may not have been perfect, but it has served us well since 1992. The international community must carefully monitor what is taking place in Guyana on this issue. They have invested too much in free and fair elections to allow for a constitutional crisis to develop over the appointment of the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission.

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