Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally writes gov’t on retirement

SURUJBALLY has indicated to government his readiness to demit office and has recommended a raft of measures to reform the commission, which he believes is at times hamstrung by political brinkmanship. However, the government while accepting Surujbally’s position has insisted on him creating the platform for seamless transition of his successor.

According sources, government has made it clear to Surujbally that effective on the day of him demitting office will be the date of the assumption of office, (swearing in of the new chairman.) Additionally, government has insisted that all arrangements and decisions be made to ensure that the secretariat is stable and that the work programme of the commission continues seamlessly. Surujbally has been at the helm of GECOM since 2001.

Meanwhile, at a news conference Tuesday morning, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Clement Rohee said at a recently held Central Executive Committee meeting “the urgency of GECOM’s chairman to demit office was emphasised especially in the light of corruptions, allegations that are now being surfaced and the failure of GECOM to discharge its constitutional responsibilities in a fair and unbiased manner.”

“We understand that Mr. Surujbally is soon to demit office. He has met with the President and he has met with Leader of the Opposition, and the formalities have been put in place. So it seems as if our protest has paid off. I remember at some of these picketing exercises journalists would ask us how long we intend to continue with this picketing exercise and my response to them would be: ‘until our goals are achieved.’ Well from all indications one of our goals has been achieved.

Contacted on the issue, Surujbally while not denying he has indicated to the President and opposition leader his intention to demit office, said he had since 2006 been asking to leave. “Rohee would know that since 2006 I wanted to resign when his party was winning elections. Surujbally insisted that he will resign, but this would happen during a seamless transition.

Rohee said too that he understands that both Surujbally and the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield are on leave. “Mr. Surujbally is on leave pending the conclusion of his tenure, which will happen sometime in November I believe. Mr. Lowenfield is on leave, his annual vocational leave, hoping that his contract which expires in March next year will be renewed. Our position is that Mr. Lowenfield’s contract ought not to be renewed, and that given the current investigation or audit that is taking place at GECOM, he should not return to office while the investigation is ongoing,” Rohee said.

The PPP general secretary said too that “it is strange that no public announcement has been made so far on Mr. Surujbally demitting office and this is important because we would have to follow the Carter Centre formula, which has to do with the election or the identification of a new chairman of GECOM and that could take some time before we arrive there. All of these therefore have to be looked at in the context of the timeframe for elections either Local Government or General and Regional which are to be held in 2019 and 2020, respectively, so the time factor is of great consideration,” Rohee asserted.

He said too notwithstanding the fact that Surujbally is on official leave, “every single day he is in office, what he is doing there we do not know, but there is always grounds for suspicion when it comes to GECOM’s work. We understand the Mr. Lowenfield is also on leave, but he is almost every day at GECOM, if you are on leave you on leave, you can’t be on leave and still be at work. So it appears to me that they either getting rid of or discussing issues that the auditors and investigators will eventually be aiming at. I don’t want to speculate on this matter but at the same time we have to intelligently anticipate based on our experiences because we are not Johnny come lately with respect to elections in this country.” Dr Surujbally told the Guyana Chronicle that Mr Lowenfield was called out on leave to facilitate the ongoing audit.