Elections Commission Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally, yesterday slammed reports by Channel 9, talk show host, Roger Moore, that he was engaged in ethnic cleansing of the commission.
It was a report, which Moore said, resulted from his being misled by his source and that when he received the information it was too late to check with Dr Surujbally. "I take full responsibility for the report as I was misled by a source," Moore said.
Dr Steve Surujbally (centre) at yesterday's meeting with the press in the Elections Commission's boardroom at its High Street office, which he called to dispel reports that he had fired two of his senior officers. To his right, is Calvin Benn, chief election officer(ag), and to his left is Alwyn Edwards, his personal assistant.
The report, aired on Tuesday, claimed that Surujbally had unilaterally fired Calvin Benn, the deputy chief election officer and Keith Lowenfield, the logistical officer and that he had been pressured into firing them. Surujbally has called the manager of Channel 9, who has apologized.
Both Benn, now acting as the chief election officer in the absence of Gocool Boodoo, and Lowenfield were present at the meeting with the press yesterday. Surujbally described them as "trusted lieutenants" and his senior officers as being a cut above staff with whom he had worked before.
An obviously aggrieved Surujbally told reporters that the report, which was aired at the same time that the commission was having its weekly meeting, traumatized the commission's staff and he said that he had had to convene a staff meeting on Wednesday to clear the air. He said that one member had remarked that the meeting was timely since the atmosphere at the commission was like a "morgue" following Moore's report.
The Elections Commission chairman asserted that he could not be pressured in any form and in any way. "If anyone calls me in any way with any `dotishness', I will respond appropriately."
The chairman said that he had since met President Bharrat Jagdeo and Leader of the Opposition, Desmond Hoyte to request that they urge their supporters not vilify the commission.
He also dealt with the issue of another rumoured casualty of his cleansing -- the firing of Mike Alleyne, an information technology (IT) specialist.
Surujbally explained that Alleyne, whom he described as a colleague of many years and an extremely competent person, was on a three-month contract that ended on October 31.
He said that he had spoken to Alleyne, who worked in the IT Department, which he described as a very sensitive one, about entering that department to complete work, which had to be completed.
Surujbally said that he detected from the voice in which Alleyne responded that he had lost a friend and said as much to someone later. But he said that he had to act to preserve the image of the commission.
He explained that the organisation's structure being discussed with his senior staff called for an IT specialist and an IT officer, for both of which Alleyne was free to apply. Surujbally said that the commission as a whole would make the decision to recruit him, if Alleyne applied for either post.
Commenting further on the quality of the commission's staff -- other than its senior officers -- Surujbally said that he did not know enough about them to make a judgment given his "newness". He said that he was learning from them as well as teaching them.
He observed that the staff needed to be nurtured into the ideology of the commission, which was that they had to be above the political fray. He said that he has had three meetings in the two months he has been on the job to impress this on them and that as a measure of the importance he attaches to it, one of his senior officers would be supporting the human resources officer in this endeavour.