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President’s Office denies attempts to remove Claudette Singh
– condemns Nandlall’s ‘sanctimonious gangster’ comment
The President’s office yesterday condemned comments made by former Attorney General under the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), Anil Nandlall, in which he referred to the incumbent as a “sanctimonious gangster” and insinuated that a plan was being hatched to remove the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM’s) Chair, Justice Claudette Singh, from her post.
GECOM Chair, Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh
In a statement it was note that, “The Ministry of the Presidency rejects out rightly the wicked and highly outrageous statement issued to the media by Mr. Anil Nandlall captioned, ‘The sanctimonious gangster on the prowl… and the clinical insanity continues…’ and which accuses President David Granger of hatching a plan to remove Chairman of the Elections Commission, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh from the helm of the Commission.”
The Former Attorney General in a statement posted to his Facebook page claimed that word was being circulated that Granger was planning to remove the GECOM Chair from her position.
“It is clear,” Nandlall posited “that this latest initiative is being explored because of the Chairperson’s obdurate refusal to use fraudulent and fictitious numbers presented by the Chief Elections Officer as the basis for the declaration of the Elections Results, which would illegally gift to Granger and his Rigging Cabal, another term of the Presidency and government, respectively.”
Nevertheless, the former Attorney General assured that if such plans are afoot, they would fail, as the GECOM Chair can only be removed from office by way of resignation because of the Price/Carter formula.
Former Attorney General Anil Nandlall
Explaining, Nandlall said that the formula, from its conception, never addressed the “disappointment of” and the removal from office of a Chairperson, once appointed.
He added that those who participated in the constitutionalisation of the Price/Carter formula included members of the People’s National Congress who failed to address that issue.
“In the result, there is currently no provision in the Constitution of Guyana which speaks to the removal of a Chairperson of GECOM, unlike the other Constitutional Commissions,” Nandlall added.
The statement from the MoTP however, referred to Nandlall’s accusations as dishonest, malevolent, dangerous and based on “spurious and unsubstantiated fiction.”
“This statement,” it noted too “is clearly aimed at creating panic and confusion amongst the citizenry. The Ministry, therefore, calls on every right-thinking Guyanese to reject this statement and to condemn Mr. Nandlall for his attempt to instigate fear and confusion in the country.”
A demand was moreover made for Nandlall to retract his post which has been described as “baseless and irresponsible” by the President’s office.
De facto President David Granger
The former Attorney General, in a reply to the condemnation, challenged President Granger to “direct his underlings” to withdraw the legal proceedings filed by Misenga Jones, through her attorney Mayo Roberston and to permit the Constitutional electoral process to run its course.
That move, he claimed, was played after it was discovered that the Chair could not be removed because of the Price/Carter formula.
While in the statement, it was pointed out that the President always abided by the Constitution, Nandlall sought to highlight 10 instances where he failed to do so.
Among those Nandlall stated were President Granger’s unilateral appointment of Justice James Patterson as the Chairman of GECOM, in violation of the Constitution; his willful refusal to resign, disband cabinet, and call an elections within three months after the successful passage of a no-confidence motion in December 2018 as mandated by the Constitution and his continuous and repeated attempts, through his Commissioners and acolytes, to interfere with the operations of GECOM, an independent constitutional body.
According to Nandlall, “Rather than issuing a statement of sanctimonious platitudes and rhetoric, President Granger can easily prove me wrong by directing his underlings to withdraw the legal proceedings filed today (yesterday) and to permit the Constitutional Electoral Process to run its course, paving the way for GECOM to declare the true results of the March 2, 2020 Elections, reflective of the franchise of the electorate.”
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