The country’s leaders have an obligation to rise above differences and agree on a Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission as a unilateral appointment can seriously jeopardise democratic gains, according to Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran.
President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo have been locked in protracted talks on the question of a new Chair. Granger rejected Jagdeo’s list of six names as it didn’t contain any candidate who was a judge, a former judge or eligible to be appointed a judge. Jagdeo has maintained that the list is valid but that a second list will be submitted once certain matters are clarified between him and Granger.
Writing in the last Sunday Stabroek and referring to the long struggle for electoral democracy, Ramkarran warned: “Our fragile electoral peace, although punctuated by violence and the refusal of the losers to accept election results, the latter of which has prevailed in relation to every elections since 1992, can only be sustained if the basic electoral reforms implemented since 1992 are retained. If the stalemate in the appointment of a Chair eventually leads to the unilateral appointment of a Chair of the Elections Commission, all that so many thousands of people have fought for and for such a long time, will be placed in serious jeopardy. All bets about tolerating elections results, however truculently, will be off.”
