ST. GEORGE’S, GRENADA, FEBRUARY 22nd, 2017- GIS: Grenada’s Minister for Health, Social Security and International Business says there is no political interference in the decision taken by the Office of the Governor General not to renew the contracts of seven Registration Officers.
During the Government’s weekly Post Cabinet Briefing on Tuesday, Minister Nickolas Steele said the Governor General acted in her own deliberate judgment and it is not the government’s place to question that decision.
Chapter 268A of the Representation of the People’s Act, section 29, which deals with Registration Officers, Assistant Registration Officers and Returning Officers, states that the Governor General, acting in his or her own deliberate judgment, shall appoint fit and proper persons for each constituency.
“I think that based on the first report that I have received that the governor general had good reasons. I think that if a person is seventy years old, that would be a good reason, no one could scream about political interference there. If someone no longer resides in a constituency, that would be a reason as well since the law requires that, there is no political interference,” Minister Steele said.
Some of the registration officers are said to be in their 70’s while one is in his 80’s.
Minister Steele says there were yet others who no longer lived in the constituency in which they were Registration Officers.
He maintains there is nothing sinister about the decision.
“The timing of it is up to the Governor General, whether she chooses to keep someone post retirement age, after the age of seventy, it’s up to the Governor General. One that I think the governor general has no choice in but it’s still up to her deliberation, are those that are no longer residing in the constituency. The law dictates that,” Minister Steele added.
