Dear Editor,
I hate to make public statements on political matters, but as many a wise person has said, we are all consumed by the politics of the day; and so, perhaps unwisely, I venture a contribution.
The Carter formula for the appointment of the GECOM Chairman by all appearances, was based on the biblical, I’ll Divide and You’ll Choose method of ensuring an undisputed division.
But the last time, it didn’t work.
Let’s forget, for now, about why it didn’t work and get back to the objective. The objective would be, in my humble opinion, to achieve a non-partisan balance in the chairmanship of what would otherwise be a politically comprised body. The process should simply require a commonsensical approach to a consultative process, whereby no one side should use it to their partisan advantage.
To achieve this, I suggest broader consultations to further remove any hint of bias.
Let the non-political organisations in Guyana, and abroad, each suggest a list of names of fit and proper prospective chairpersons. Ask an organisation like Transparency International or the Carter Center to oversee this process. Then, the persons who are suggested the most, by these organisations (the statistical mode) should constitute the basic shortlist of maybe twenty names. The Carter formula can thereafter be applied to these names to arrive at a chairman.
That way, a party would have great difficulty in claiming that there was direct party bias in the selection of the Carter shortlist.
Yours faithfully,
Keith Evelyn
