In a surprise move, the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), James Patterson, has written the Commission’s Legal Officer, Attorney- at-Law, Excellence Dazzell, expressing a loss of confidence in her capacity.
Since providing the Commission with a Legal Opinion warning against the move to national House-to-House registration – a view that clashed with that of the Coalition Government-nominated GECOM Commissioners – Dazzell has been under fire. The Government-nominated commissioners maintained that Dazzell needed the approval of the full Commission to offer legal advice.
For months now the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has objected to the push by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to conduct new national house to house registration – more so given indications that thousands of eligible voters risk being de-registered. On May 13, 2019, an opinion was provided by GECOM’s Legal Officer and it confirmed the validity of these objections.
The legal opinion points out that:
“The use of the work ‘revise’ [in the Election Laws (Amendment) Act 15 of 2000] suggest that the process is not one where a ‘new’ List is generated, but one where the most recent list is updated or amended.
“….I therefore advise that procedures be put in place to ensure the revision of the list, otherwise the Commission would be acting in defiance of the law and may prejudice aby by-election that may become necessary.”
Opposition-nominated GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, told the Mirror Newspaper, that no decision was taken at the level of the Commission to take action against the Legal Officer. “As you are aware the Government aligned Commissioners had called for the Legal Officer to be sanctioned and investigated. No such decision was taken. Now we see this action, based on reports in the state-owned Guyana Chronicle. This is where we are, unilateral actions,” he said.
Gunraj added, “My concern, based on what was reported by the Guyana Chronicle, is that action was taken against the Legal Officer by the GECOM Chairman and she was not given an opportunity to respond. This breaches the rule of natural justice. So I don’t see how the GECOM Chairman can expect us to take this seriously.”
Additionally, GECOM’s Legal Officer has not commented on the matter since.
