GECOM does not have to await determination of criminal proceedings before activating its lawful powers of dismissal

There is in existence a grouping whom former leader of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNCR), Robert Corbin, once famously described as a ‘’bunch of wild men.’’ Their public views are extremist, sometimes seditious and often calculated to excite racial hostilities in this land. Frequently, they attempt to varnish their verbiage with a repugnant veneer of warped interpretations of law and the constitution, acquired autodidactically.

During ‘’the five months of madness’’ which succeeded the 2nd March, 2020 elections, the nation heard them, repeatedly, calling on President David Granger to ‘’discipline’’ the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for not accepting Clairmont Mingo’s fraudulent declaration of the results of the elections for District No. 4 and Keith Lowenfield’s perverse Report of the final results of the National Recount, as well as, advising the President to ‘’ignore’’ the elections results declared by GECOM and to remain in government ‘’in the best interest of the nation.’’ Such verbal idiocies and the depraved minds from which they emanate, have no place in modern civilization. They resonate from an era to which modern Guyana will never revert; but their authors are so delusional that this self-evident truth is lost upon them.

One eminent member of this rogue gang cannot apprehend the possible lawful existence of criminal proceedings in the justice system and departmental disciplinary proceeding being maintained simultaneously against the same individual. As a result, with blissful ignorance, he attacks the Chairperson of GECOM for directing the Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Election Officer, Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer for Region 4, Clairmont Mingo, to show cause why they should not be removed from office, consequent upon motions being laid before the Commission seeking their removal. That the Chairperson is affording to these individuals the facility of natural justice, completely eludes this obtuse mind.

The truth is that there is sufficient evidence within the personal knowledge of the Commission, including acts of attempted fraud, dishonesty, insubordination and wilful refusal to comply with clear statutory provisions, that ought to render these persons dismissed, instantaneously with cause, over nine months ago! In this regard, the Commission itself is guilty of dereliction of its constitutional duty to the people of Guyana for not acting decisively and condignly on this matter. But that is a debate for another time and place.

This reckless critic of the GECOM Chairperson’s actions blatantly refuses to recognise that both the Constitution and the Elections Law Amendment Act expressly mandate that its employees are to be hired by the Commission and must remain, at all times, subject to the direction and control of the said Commission. During the ‘’5 months of madness’’ when the Chief Election Officer went rogue, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Caribbean Court of Justice pronounced that he is not a ‘’lone ranger,’’ but subject to the direction and control of the Commission, citing the very constitutional and statutory provisions to which I have made reference. The Courts further emphasised that the Commission reserves the power to discipline and dismiss officers as it sees fit. There is no obligation known to law which enjoins the Commission to await the determination of any criminal proceedings before it activates its lawful powers of dismissal.

This self-same wild man views the activation by the Prime Minister of a constitutionally provided mechanism, which the Prime Minister is expressly empowered to do, in respect of the members of the Police Service Commission, as a violation of the law and of citizens’ rights. Such irrational insipience is unworthy of a response.

In the end, an absurd irony becomes clear: these ‘’wild men’’ are so accustomed to ignominiously advocate for abrogation of the rule of law, that they cannot see compliance with the rule of law, even if it hits them in the face.