The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) might have erred by allowing The New Movement (TNM) to take up the joinder seat in the National Assembly following the resignation of the representative from the Liberty and Justice party.

When pressed on the issue on Friday, GECOM’s Legal Officer, Attorney-at-Law Kurt Da Silva, explained that based on the Representation of the People Act, the LJP was the only party eligible to take up a seat in the National Assembly from among the group of parties that formed the joinder.

Ahead of the 2020 Elections, LJP, TNM and A New and United Guyana (ANUG) came together to form the joinder, and after raking in a total of 5,214 votes, they agreed to rotate the single seat won in the National Assembly based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). But Da Silva said the method of rotating the seat, which was approved by GECOM, was legally flawed.

“Now, obviously no individual party would have gotten all of those votes, so then it goes to which party has the highest number of votes, and the seats are allocated in that way. So, if it is one seat, the party with the most votes gets that seat for the entire period,” Da Silva explained. 

Based on Da Silva’s interpretation of the electoral laws, following the resignation of Shuman, another name should have been extracted from the LJP List of Representatives, and not the TNM List of Representatives.

It was based on the flawed method of extracting the joinder representative, that embattled Leader of TNM, Dr Asha Kissoon was elected to sit in the National Assembly following the resignation of Shuman. TNM had secured the least number of votes – some 244 votes – but was given the opportunity in March 2023 to occupy the seat ahead of ANUG, for just about three months. Kissoon, however, has since refused to step down. 

Da Silva said once there is a vacancy in the 65-Member National Assembly, the Speaker initiates the process by writing the Representative of a Party’ List, and obtaining its extraction. He said while the process was correctly initiated, the extracted elected official needed to come from the LJP List. 

However, GECOM failed to inform the Speaker that in this instance the name needed to be extracted from the LJP List and not TNM or ANUG List. Instead, it offered its stamp of approval.  

Questioned why the Speaker was not informed of the legal opinion provided by Da Silva, Deputy Chief Elections Commission (DCEO), Aneal Giddings, while jumping to the defence of the Chairman of the Elections Commission (GECOM), Claudette Singh, assured that the issue is receiving the attention of the Commission. 

“This matter is actually on the agenda of the commission and I know madam chair would not want to proffer any opinion at this point, it would be premature. It is a matter on the agenda, and the commission needs to discuss it and decide on the way forward as a collective. Whether they interact with the Speaker of the National Assembly or if they need to wait on some correspondence from the national assembly or otherwise, that is before the commission and I know it is on the agenda,” the DCEO said. 

Coming to her own defense after she was accused of dodging questions on the issue, Justice (Retired) Singh said that the Commission was silent on the matter when it was first brought to its attention, however, she is optimistic that it will soon be addressed.  

“That matter went before the Commission and they said nothing. So, there is another step I am thinking of that I don’t want to divulge but there is another step,” the GECOM Chair said. 

There have been calls by A New and United Guyana for Dr Kissoon to relinquish the joinder seat in Parliament to make way for its representative. However, with this new interpretation of the law, it is unclear as to whether GECOM will remove Kissoon to have the seat occupied by LJP as provided by the law.  While it has complained about Kissoon not giving up the seat, ANUG has never approached the Court for any relief on the issue.

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