The Georgetown Chambers of Commerce on Friday expressed its contentment on the decision made by Retired Justice Claudette Singh on Thursday to terminate the contracts of Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxxanne Myers and the Region 4 Returning Officer for General and Regional Elections 2020, Clairmont Mingo whose substantive position is Registration Officer at the GECOM Fort Wellington Registration Office in Region 5.
The body believes that this move was the right one. “The GCCI would like to state that this is a step in the right direction for Guyana. This is based on our first-hand observation of the partisan and unprofessional actions of those officers during General and Regional Elections which placed Guyana at risk of entering into the league of pariah states,” the statement reads.
In June 2021, the Chamber was pleased with the steps taken at that time to hold recalcitrant officers of the GECOM accountable after it witnessed several acts of obfuscation, open defiance to the instructions of the Commission and the Courts, as well as partial actions during the GRE 2020.
Further, “The Chamber looks forward to an open and transparent hiring process to fill the now vacant positions at the GECOM with technically competent and impartial officers to execute their statutory responsibilities. We would also like to reiterate that these developments represent an opportune time for us as a nation to undertake the necessary electoral reforms, and underscores the urgency with which they ought to be undertaken.”
They have also called on the leadership of Guyana to ensure that the electoral reforms process is undertaken as a matter of highest priority to ensure that there “is no risk of the recurrences of GRE 2020.”
