President denies move to remove GECOM chair …calls Nandlall’s allegations “wicked, dangerous and spurious”

The Ministry of the Presidency has rejected outright what it described as the wicked and highly outrageous statement issued to the media by Mr. Anil Nandlall, which claimed that President David Granger was spearheading efforts to remove Chairman of GECOM, Justice Claudette Singh.

In a statement issued by his office, President Granger said: “Mr. Nandlall’s accusations are dishonest, malevolent, dangerous and based on spurious and unsubstantiated fiction. This statement is clearly aimed at creating panic and confusion amongst the citizenry, the ministry said in a release on Tuesday. The Ministry, therefore, calls on every right-thinking Guyanese to reject this statement and to condemn Mr. Nandlall for his attempt to instigate fear and confusion in the country. President Granger has repeatedly said and demonstrated that he respects the integrity and autonomy of the Elections Commission and that he would abide by any declaration that the Chairman makes which are in keeping with the laws of Guyana. The Ministry of the Presidency calls on Mr. Nandlall to retract his baseless and irresponsible assertions.

Meanwhile, Nandlall in his missive said late last Monday evening, news began to circulate that President Granger is spearheading an initiative to remove Justice Claudette Singh as Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission. “For whatever it is worth, all are reminded of Mr. Granger’s repeated public commitment that he will accept any declaration GECOM makes. This public commitment can be added to his repeated jejune and placatory public pledges to uphold the Constitution, to adhere to the Rule of Law, and to abide by rulings from our Judiciary and stored, if only for posterity,” Nandlall wrote.

The former attorney general said it is clear that this latest initiative is being explored because of the Chairperson’s obdurate refusal to use fraudulent and fictitious numbers presented by the Chief Elections Officer as the basis for the declaration of the Elections Results, which would illegally gift Granger another term of the Presidency and government, respectively. “It is apparent that to Granger and this Cabal, the will of the electorate has no place in an electoral process. There is no doubt that one must be possessed of a peculiarly curious mental composition to persuade oneself that the Rule of Law and a legal system in a free society, will ever countenance the removal of the head of an Election Commission, by a Government who has lost an election because of a refusal to fraudulently declare that government, the winner of those Elections,” Nandlall said.

He added: “Anytime this becomes legally possible, then any tyrant who loses an election will invoke this process; it will mark the death of electoral democracy on planet Earth,” Nandlall said.

He said based on Guyana’s constitutional matrix, as it relates to the removal of a Chairperson of GECOM, it is settled that the appointment process of the Chairperson of GECOM owes its genesis in the Price/Carter formula. However, he said the formula, from its conception, never addressed the disappointment of and the removal from office of a Chairperson, once appointed. “Those distinguished Guyanese who participated in the constitutionalisation of the Price/Carter formula, including members of the People’s National Congress, failed to address this issue in their legislative endeavours. In the result, there is currently no provision in the Constitution of Guyana which speaks to the removal of a Chairperson of GECOM, unlike the other Constitutional Commissions. Those who think otherwise are free to publicly prove me wrong by adverting to a provision in the Constitution to this effect. It is for this reason that since the constitutionalisation of the Carter/Price formula, every Chairperson appointed to GECOM, has demitted office by resignation,” Nandlall wrote.