GECOM hiring policy concerns not about race, but fairness

GECOM hiring policy concerns not about race, but fairness – Jagdeo

Jun 15, 2018 News

…says Roxanne Myers campaigned on social media for Coalition

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo sought to walk away from the position held by his colleagues who shared the view that hiring practices at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was race-based.
“This is not about race. This is about a fair system of hiring professionals; not party people to run the thing,” Jagdeo told a Press Conference yesterday.
On Tuesday, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Commissioners of GECOM expressed the opinion that race played a role in Vishnu Persaud being voted down for the position of Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO).
Commissioners Robeson Benn, Sase Gunraj and Bibi Shadick favoured Persaud, who held the post up to 2017 when his contract expired.

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo holds up a social media post made by Roxanne Myers urging support for the APNU+AFC Coalition.

Persaud was the top-ranked candidate for the job, but using the existing process at the Commission, GECOM Chairman, James Patterson, used his casting vote on the seven-member Commission against Persaud’s appointment.
The number-two ranked applicant, an Afro-Guyanese, Roxanne Myers received support from Patterson and the Government Commissioners, Desmond Trotman, Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin.
Noting that the system is flawed, Jagdeo stated that two other candidates should have received at least one point for attending the interview, but instead received zero from the Government Commissioners.
“How is it that someone who has no experience in electoral matters comes out ahead of someone who has been in the system since 2001?” Jagdeo questioned.
POLITICAL
Jagdeo told reporters that based on social media posts, Myers was a supporter of the Coalition in the lead-up to the 2015 General Elections, encouraging persons on her Facebook page to vote for the party.
The Opposition Leader presented the posts to the media, stating that it should disqualify Myers from being appointed DCEO.
“It is not just about any Afro-Guyanese. If you’re Afro-Guyanese and PPP, they will give you zero. This is about fairness in the process. That is what I have argued constantly. I have said it openly,” Jagdeo stated.
In this regard, Jagdeo expressed that it raises concerns about the credibility of the electoral process when the DCEO is a strident supporter of the APNU/AFC Coalition and was encouraging people to vote for the party in the lead-up to the 2015 General and Regional Elections.

A close-up of social media posts by Roxanne Myers shared by the PPP/C.

In recent weeks, members of the PPP had claimed that the staff of the Commission did not reflect the ethnic composition of the country, pointing out that the senior positions were held by Afro-Guyanese. Commissioner Benn had gone as far as to suggest that 95% of the staff of GECOM was Afro-Guyanese, but these claims were debunked by Patterson, who released staff numbers to the media.
The PPP Commissioners have taken their concerns to the Ethnic Relations Commission.

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