Skip to main content

FM
Former Member

High Court thwarts opposition attempt to remove Goocool Boodhoo from GECOM

 

Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang yesterday granted an injunction order which prevents the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from pronouncing on whether the contract of former Chief Elections Officer Gocool Boodoo should be renewed without following the normal procedure  used by the Commission for renewal of contracts for senior employees.

In the writ, Chairman of GECOM Dr. Steve Surujbally and Commissioners Mahmood Shaw, Keshav Mangal, Jaya Manickchand, Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Sandra Jones are named as respondents in the matter while Boodoo is the applicant. The matter was yesterday adjourned to July 10, 2013 at 11 am.

Boodhoo moved to the court after the opposition commissioners and chairman hatched a plan for his removal via non-renewal of his contract. In the Originating Notice of Motion, Boodoo is seeking an Order directed to the Chairman and Commissioners of GECOM to show why they have not renewed his contract which came to an end on April 30, 2013 and to thereby quash the decision not to automatically renew the contract on the grounds that the decision taken not to automatically renew the contract is being made in bad faith, undermining and interfering with the applicant’s constitutional right to work in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. In the Notice of Motion, he said that it is a legitimate expectation that his contract is renewed.

Boodoo is also seeking an Order of Mandamus directed to the Chairman and Commissioners of GECOM to renew the contract on the grounds that they must comply with the procedure that the Commission has established over the years when renewing contracts for senior employees.

Boodoo also sought an Order of Prohibition to prevent the Chairman and Commissioners of GECOM from making a decision not to renew Boodoo’s contract without following the procedure.

The applicant is seeking the Orders on the grounds that his constitutional right to work is being denied by the Chairman and Commissioners of GECOM in an unfair and unjust manner.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang yesterday granted an injunction order which prevents the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from pronouncing on whether the contract of former Chief Elections Officer Gocool Boodoo should be renewed without following the normal procedure  used by the Commission for renewal of contracts for senior employees.

In the writ, Chairman of GECOM Dr. Steve Surujbally and Commissioners Mahmood Shaw, Keshav Mangal, Jaya Manickchand, Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Sandra Jones are named as respondents in the matter while Boodoo is the applicant. The matter was yesterday adjourned to July 10, 2013 at 11 am.

FM
Originally Posted by Danyael:

Since when a contract worker can determine if his contract can be extended? His ass needs to for demonstrated incompetence that had the potential to subvert the democratic will of the people.

Since when afc/pnc collaborators with sinister motives can circumvent the normal procedures of renewing or rejecting a contract. Let the law take its course. 

FM
Originally Posted by BGurd_See:
Originally Posted by Danyael:

Since when a contract worker can determine if his contract can be extended? His ass needs to for demonstrated incompetence that had the potential to subvert the democratic will of the people.

Since when afc/pnc collaborators with sinister motives can circumvent the normal procedures of renewing or rejecting a contract. Let the law take its course. 

what is sinister about removing someone they do not trust or one who attempted to hand over the election to the PPP on an incompetent ( if not so then he is a crook) execution of his duties?

FM
Originally Posted by Conscience:

The rule of law is paramount....

IS that why the PPP hired extrajudicial killers led by a drug lord as their crime enforcement officers? Is that why the region 3 individual is on bail because some girl said he groped her and a ministers son who is accused of rape and battery using a fire arm walked free? Tell this law crap to the birds. The law is convenient when it is to the advantage of the PPP.

FM

(Peeping Tom)The ABC countries are meddling in the internal affairs of Guyana. But they have earned the luxury of doing so because for many years they bankrolled elections in Guyana.
While Guyana has come a far way in financing its own elections, the high degree of political suspicion that exists over the results of elections, suspicions that are often manufactured by the Opposition who have a great difficulty in coming to terms with its electoral defeats, there will continue to be the need for foreign input into our elections to avoid charges and counter charges about its conduct.


In fact, so much suspicion exists over the results of elections in Guyana that a simple mistake in a calculation can cause a riot in the streets. Right now, there are forces calling for the removal of the Chief Elections Officer simply because he made a mistake, not in the count of the votes, but in the application of a formula which decides how seats are allocated.
It is not the responsibility of the Chief Elections Officer to announce the results of the elections. That is the responsibility of the Commissioners. As such, it is the responsibility of the Commissioners to check the calculations relating to the formula for apportioning seats. This is the responsibility of every Commissioner.  The fact that there may have been a human error on the part of an officer does not remove that obligation.
If it can be established that the mistake was deliberate, then action should be taken forthwith, not belatedly, since this would amount to an attempt to deceive the Commissioners. If however, it is found that there was a human error, then a reprimand is in order because to err is human.
Unfortunately, there is a proclivity in Guyana for scapegoats to be found whenever the Opposition loses an election. The heads of someone is always called for so as to deflect from the loss of the Opposition. It seems that quite belatedly, the Chief Elections Officer is going to be made into a political scapegoat over what is a calculation mistake, something that is done almost every day in the schools of this country. Imagine if a child had to be taken out of school for making a calculation mistake.
The precedent that will be set by the removal of the Chief Elections Officer is one that this country will regret. It means that those who man the election machinery in the country will be working under tremendous pressure, afraid of the consequences- including protesters carrying out vigils in front of your homes- if you should make a human mistake in the system.
This will mean that those who are responsible for counting the ballots and announcing results will exercise greater caution in their work and this will mean that it will take longer for the results of any election to become known because no one wants to miscount a single ballot or make any addition mistake for fear of the consequences.
Already however, the long time- close to a week- that it takes for the results of the elections to become known has triggered suspicions about those results and the ABC countries have themselves, after the last elections, called for the results to be declared more quickly.
Ironically, for this to happen would subject the system to the possibility of human error which in itself would lead to protests over the results of the elections.
The ruling party and the opposition parties know by the next morning after the elections what is the outcome of the elections. They have polling agents in almost every polling station and they obtain a copy of the statements of poll and are able to quickly tabulate the results and know how they have performed.
At the official level, however, this simple case of adding two thousand polling station results takes a week because the laws of Guyana require a process by which the results are announced first in the individual districts before they can be announced nationally. This is what causes much of the delay and the ensuing problems, not human error by any election official.
If the ABC countries are so keen on holding Local Government Elections, they should offer to take over the entire election process and run it for the country. But will this alleviate the problems. It would not because the various processes by which the count has to be declared has to be undertaken before the results can be announced formally.
The greatest obstacle to electoral efficiency in Guyana is the attitude of the Opposition towards their defeat. They simply refuse to accept the results, throw public tantrums, question the integrity of the process and end up looking silly when provided with the official count at each polling station and when they cannot prove that there were serious irregularities that would have altered the outcome of the elections.
The Opposition in this country created the impression that there were serious irregularities with the results of the 2011 elections. They took to protest action and demanded hard and soft copies of the results from the Elections Commission so that they could undertake their own verification.
They took months to reconcile the result of 2000 polling stations. They have not provided the public with the evidence of massive fraud, and in typical fashion, they have decided to deflect from this failure by resurrecting an internal incident within the Commission and using this as the basis for the removal of the Chief Elections Officer.
Such a removal will only undermine confidence in the system because it will suggest that there were serious problems within the electoral machinery which could call into question the results of future elections.
The Opposition is not interested in building greater confidence in the system. They are interested in creating political scapegoats so that the wrath of their supporters would not turn against a leadership, which has failed since 1992 to deliver an election victory.
Were mistakes made by the Opposition which is responsible for them losing every election since 1992? Was there any human error involved? If so who is to be held accountable?
How come the Opposition continues to lose election after election and yet the leadership remains undisturbed? Yet they have audacity to condemn someone for making a mistake in calculation.

FM

GECOM formally boots Boodoo

  • Tuesday, 16 July 2013 17:26

GECOM formally boots Boodoo

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Tuesday decided that Gocool Boodoo’s contract as Chief Elections Officer cannot be renewed and the post must be advertised, according to Commission Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally.
β€œWe will be going to advertise the position and he will be free to re-apply as anyone else,” Surujbally told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com).
He said the decision by the seven member commission was not unanimous, but he declined to provide details.
Other usually reliable sources told DemWaves that Surujbally was not required to use his casting vote because it was a 4-3 vote against Boodoo. The Chairman and the three opposition-nominated commisisoners voted against the renewal of Boodoo's contract and the three PPPC-nominated commissioners voted for his services to be retained.
The GECOM Chairman had relied on three legal opinions that had all advised that Boodoo had no legitimate expectation for contract renewal.
Boodoo’s High Court action to block the commission from deciding his fate was eventually thrown out by Chief Justice Ian Chang on grounds that each of the commissioners could not have been e asked to lead a defence but rather it should have been the commission as a collective.
Now buttressed by  Commissioner Vincent Alexander’s assertion that Boodoo had allegedly used the wrong formula to calculate the 2006 and 2011 elections to give the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) an edge, the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) are even more adamant that Boodoo must not hold that post again.
Sources say that even if Boodoo applies after the post is advertised, the opposition-nominated commissioners will not support him.
Alexander has recalled spotting that the wrong formula had been used by Boodoo in calculating the 2011 election result that had originally given the PPPC a one-seat majority. He had then insisted that the right formula be applied which saw the combined opposition controlling the 65-member House by one seat.
 
 
July 3, 2013 11:12 PM
               
         
 

According to Councie, Big_Seed and Ole_seed.....

Budhoo cannot and will not be removed as Chief Elections Officer at GECOM.

These 3 Funny Fellas need to stop playing with one another Backside.......

Because Budhoo is already off the Job....

His Contract to Rig De Elections Results.....

Ended on April 30 2013.

FM

Add Reply

×
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×