And keeping it on Elections and Boundaries, we also asked Minister Henry Charles Usher about the Opposition UDP's complaints against Senator Collet Montejo.
You'll remember 2 weeks ago when the UDP objected to the decision from the Elections and Boundaries Commission to appoint Montejo as a member of the Re-districting Taskforce. He will act as a supervisor of all fieldwork of gathering and providing all information for the consideration of the task force.
The UDP went as far as to suggest that Montejo cannot serve as a member of this task force because it is a conflict of interest with his appointment as one of the Senators representing the ruling government. We asked Usher, who is the Chairman of the People's United Party, about that complaint:
Reporter
"Let's talk about that, sir. Conflict of interest?"
Henry Charles Usher - Minister of Public Service
"Well, first of all, I'm not the person to be asking that. The appointment was made by the Public Service - sorry, by the Election and Boundaries Commission. They're the ones that set up the task force, a task force that's comprised of technical persons, persons with experience in statistics, mapping, legal affairs, and also a field supervisor. And they, after doing their interviews, have agreed to appoint Mr. Collet Montejo for his technical expertise. It's not a job in the public service. It is a temporary appointment to a task force that will then advise the Election and Boundaries Commission. Remember that the election commission is bipartisan. And there are two members there that were appointed by the Governor-General, upon the advice of the Leader of the Opposition. So it is bipartisan and they are the ones that made that decision. Now, in reference to whether that particular section of the Constitution would apply to Mr. Montejo, I looked at it, I read it over, and that section deals with persons appointed to a post by law. I don't see Mr. Montejo being appointed to any job or any post in the public service. And it deals with public officials that have to do with conducting elections. For instance, the chief elections officer could not be a senator, according to the Constitution, because she's in charge of conducting elections. Similarly, section B of that particular section of the Constitution speaks about persons who have to do with the revising of electoral lists. So any individual within the public service at the Election and Boundaries that deal with the revising of the electoral list, that person would not be able to serve as a senator. Mr. Montejo is not in charge of elections. He's not revising any election elections. He is merely a technical part of a task force appointed by the election commission. So, in my layman's reading, I don't see it as being a conflict. I think that they were trying to misdirect the fact that the work is being done by the redistricting task force and the Election and Boundaries Commission is carrying out its duty, according to the law."
So, is Senator Montejo incapable of putting his party allegiance aside for the good of democracy, as the UDP insists? We asked Usher for his take on that - and of course, PUDP style - he went for the other side's jugular:
Daniel Ortiz
"I think the bigger question they've raised is whether or not his political allegiances to the ruling government is a possibility for tainting this process that should increase democracy."
"In your opinion, having interacted with this gentleman as a member of -2 colleagues in the same party, do they have a fair complaint that Mr. Montejo can't act objectively?"
Henry Charles Usher - Minister of Public Service
"My answer to that is that you have to ask Alberto August how it is that he, being the deputy chairman of the UDP, sits on a Commission that is supposed to be independent. He's a deputy chairman of the Opposition. He sits on the Commission. They are the ones that will ask and will actually be putting together new recommendations that go - that have to be laid to the National Assembly. It's not the task force. The task force is just a technical team. So, if anybody should not be there, it should be Alberto August. And-you know, I really believe that putting somebody so political -we saw him at village council elections. We saw him get into certain extracurricular activities at these village council elections, getting into different fracas there and scuffles here. He's the one that should really be stepping down from the commission, in my opinion, having some idea on a task force, and doing a technical job is completely different than actually sitting on the commission."
