GECOM formally boots Boodoo

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Tuesday decided that Gocool Boodoo’s contract as Chief Elections Officer cannot be renewed and the post must be advertised, according to Commission Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally.

“We will be going to advertise the position and he will be free to re-apply as anyone else,” Surujbally told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com).

He said the decision by the seven member commission was not unanimous, but he declined to provide details.

Other usually reliable sources told DemWaves that Surujbally was not required to use his casting vote because it was a 4-3 vote against Boodoo. The Chairman and the three opposition-nominated commisisoners voted against the renewal of Boodoo’s contract and the three PPPC-nominated commissioners voted for his services to be retained.

The GECOM Chairman had relied on three legal opinions that had all advised that Boodoo had no legitimate expectation for contract renewal.

Boodoo’s High Court action to block the commission from deciding his fate was eventually thrown out by Chief Justice Ian Chang on grounds that each of the commissioners could not have been e asked to lead a defence but rather it should have been the commission as a collective.

Now buttressed by  Commissioner Vincent Alexander’s assertion that Boodoo had allegedly used the wrong formula to calculate the 2006 and 2011 elections to give the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) an edge, the opposition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) are even more adamant that Boodoo must not hold that post again.

Sources say that even if Boodoo applies after the post is advertised, the opposition-nominated commissioners will not support him.

Alexander has recalled spotting that the wrong formula had been used by Boodoo in calculating the 2011 election result that had originally given the PPPC a one-seat majority. He had then insisted that the right formula be applied which saw the combined opposition controlling the 65-member House by one seat.