The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) today defended the non-renewal of the contract of its Legal Officer, Kurt Da Silva saying that his actions eroded trust and confidence in his ability to fulfill his responsibility.

In a statement this afternoon, GECOM said, the primary responsibility of the Legal Officer was to represent his clients’ interests diligently and faithfully.

According to GECOM, in the recent verification case, the Legal Officer acted contrary to this duty by introducing new arguments contrary to the sworn position of the Chief Elections Officer without prior discussion or authorization.

GECOM said DaSilva’s actions undermined the trust and reliance that was placed in the Legal Officer.

“The Legal Officer was required to act within the scope of authority granted by his principal in this case the CEO. By acting outside this scope, particularly in favoring the applicant, the Legal Officer violated this fundamental principle. The actions taken by the Legal Officer severely eroded trust and confidence in his ability to fulfil his responsibilities, especially in legal matters concerning the conduct of elections. As a consequence, the Chairman denied the Legal Officer’s request for further employment,” GECOM said in a statement.

The Statement which came from GECOM’s Secretariat which is headed by the Chief Election Officer, explained that while the Performance Appraisal of the Legal Officer was initially given high scores with a proposal from the Chairman that his employment contract be renewed, the performance review period ended on February 10, 2025, whereas the Legal Officer served in the position until March 31, 2025.

The Commission explained that subsequent to the preparation of the Performance Appraisal, there was the emergence of new circumstances involving the Legal Officer, which ultimately led to the Chairman concluding that, there existed a compelling case for his employment not to be renewed.

Outside of the verification case, GECOM did not explain any other circumstances behind the decision not to renew DaSilva’s contract.

GECOM said it was faced with the question of whether the Legal Officer’s submissions to the Court was done without regard as to the consequences, or in error and it believes that the submissions to the Court were made without concern for the potential consequences.

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