Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

THE PRESIDENT’S POWER TO APPOINT IS INCONTESTABLE

Oct 21, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The legal experts will pontificate about the lawfulness of the President’s unilateral appointment of a Chairperson for the Guyana Elections Commission. The lawyers will have a field day in the courts.
The politicians and politically inclined will debate whether the President made a fool of this nation by initiating a process which has been used for the past 25 years for electing a Chairperson and then deciding to scrap that process in favour of unilaterally appointing a person of his choosing. It is the first time since the Carter formula was introduced that it has been abandoned.

There are persons who are going to defend the President’s unilateral action. It is not hard to find people in Guyana who will stick their heads in the proverbial sand.
The legal argument that the President has the power to act as he did will overshadow the bad faith in which he acted. The President initiated a process, strung out the Leader of the Opposition by rejecting the lists which were submitted based on the most contentious grounds then effectively made his own appointment.
The President has wasted a great deal of the public’s time. If he wanted, all along, to appoint someone of his choosing, he should not have initiated the process that he did.
Once he began that process, he had a moral obligation to complete it more so since he had the Leader of the Opposition prepared three lists.
The President’s power to appoint a Chairperson is incontestable. It would therefore be interesting to see what grounds the opposition will adduce in court to argue that the President’s actions were unlawful or unconstitutional. It would be hard to see how the late night swearing in of the Chairperson of the GECOM, no doubt to defeat any injunction which a court may have been inclined to grant, can now be successfully challenged.
This is not the way in which democracy is intended to operate. The PNC railed against the secret swearing in of Janet Jagan. Yet, here was this desperate evening rush to swear in the Chairperson of GECOM.
The lawyers will have their day in court but the more importantly, the court is a place of public opinion. There are many who preside in this particular court and who are worried about what this development portends for the future of democratic elections in Guyana.
The signs are worrying. Guyana now faces its gravest threat to democracy even though there was always the sneaking suspicion that the President always had a favored candidate in mind.
It, however, does not bode well for the future of democracy in Guyana that an established process, which was based on consensus, was scrapped. But there were always shades of public opinion which thought all along that this entire process would always end up with the opposition feeling that it was the victim of political mamaguy.
The implications are that there will be a complete loss of confidence in the electoral process. Given the closeness of the 2015 elections, this cannot be a happy and healthy development. All future elections henceforth will be marred by suspicions simply because of this controversial decision.
The controversy over the unilateral appointment of the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission has set Guyana back. It will engineer fears, in some quarters, that Guyana is now firmly on the road to dictatorship and that the elections of 2020 are going to be rigged by the government. It will be welcome by the supporters of the government. These two irreconcilable positions are not in the best interest of democracy.
Guyana needs to put behind it controversial elections. But the suspicion which the President’s actions will generate will put paid to such hopes.
The government and the new Elections Commission will have to do a lot of work to remove the suspicions from amongst sections of the population. As for the US Ambassador, he will insist that a crisis does not exist as yet.

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | February, 3rd, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

EBDCA/D&R Construction 40-Over Cricket Competition continues

EBDCA/D&R Construction 40-Over Cricket Competition continues

Feb 06, 2025

-Jaikarran, Bookie, Daniram amongst the runs Kaieteur Sports-The East Bank Demerara Cricket Association/D&R Construction and Machinery Rental 40-Over Cricket Competition, which began on January...
Read More
GFF announces final squad for Concacaf U-17 Men’s World Cup qualifiers

GFF announces final squad for Concacaf U-17...

Feb 06, 2025

Cricket West Indies announces exciting 2025 schedule for Senior Men’s and Women’s Teams

Cricket West Indies announces exciting 2025...

Feb 06, 2025

BCA, GCB to attend CWI meeting on February 9

BCA, GCB to attend CWI meeting on February 9

Feb 05, 2025

Bolstered Harpy Eagles eyeing perfect home record as stars return to XI

Bolstered Harpy Eagles eyeing perfect home record...

Feb 05, 2025

Hockey PAHF Junior Challenge schedule released

Hockey PAHF Junior Challenge schedule released

Feb 05, 2025

Features/Columnists

  • Land, taxes and penalties

    Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News-The American humorist Will Rogers once remarked that the best investment on earth is earth... more

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]