Ombudsman refuses to hold GCB Elections due ECB no-show DCB Head calls decision ‘strange’ ….to approach High Court Monday

Feb 27, 2021 Sports

By Sean Devers

Ombudsman Kamal Ramkarran answers after arriving late and refusing to call the GCB Elections yesterday.

DCB President Bisoon Singh had plenty to say yesterday after the GCB Elections were postponed.

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Elections saga hit another hurdle yesterday at the Umana Yana when Cricket Ombudsman Kamal Ramkarran, who turned up 31 minutes late due to another commitment, refused to Call Elections which were set by Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson, due to the no-show of Essequibo Cricket Board (ECB) despite having a quorum of 15 delegates present.
After the first Ombudsman (Dr. Winston McGowan) resigned without commencement of the job, Dr. George Norton announced the appointed former Everest Cricket Club President and Lawyer Stephen Lewis as Guyana’s second Cricket Ombudsman. Lewis’ job also never commenced since the Court squashed his appointment.
Ramkarran, who became a lawyer in Guyana in 2002 and, since then, has worked mainly as a litigator in general civil practice, said he wanted to be ‘fair’ to the ECB which he said contacted him Thursday night after the High Court threw out an injunction filed by GCB Secretary Anand Sanansie.
In 2006, Ramkarran was awarded a Master of Laws degree in Commercial and Corporate Law and in 2018 he earned another one in Banking and Finance Law with Merit from the University of London.
From 2006 to 2018 and again in 2020 he was appointed by successive Ministers of Health as a member of the Medical Council of Guyana.
Ramkarran said he wanted to check the list of registered clubs in Essequibo and admitted to seeing, but not reading, an email sent to him last night by the DCB President Bisoon Singh.
When asked when would the Elections be held? Ramkarran, who would have performed the duties of Returning Officer at yesterday’s Elections, said that only Minister Ramson has the authority to set a date for the GCB’s Elections.
However, nowhere the Guyana Cricket Administration act says that Ombudsman has the authority to change the date set by the Minister.
It was pointed out to the Ombudsman that at DCB Elections two sub-Associations failed to show-up, while the three others were present.
Major General (Ret’d) and former GCB President Norman McLean, who performed the duties of Returning Officer, allowed the Elections to go ahead since 17 delegates were present.
The DCB Head, who has an interest in challenging for GCB Presidency, described Ramkarran decision not to proceed with the Elections with all of the delegates from the BCB and DCB, present as ‘Very Strange’.
Singh’s next step now is to approach the Court on Monday and said it was strange that the Ombudsman wanted to check the Essequibo list when they were the delinquent party not submitting their list of delegates.
“This is like putting a double full stop in case you missed the first one, to achieve what they did not from the Court.You cannot breach a court order. I just received advice from our Lawyer to go the Court on Monday to compel him (Ramkarran) to do his job and failure to do that, ask the Court to Call the Elections,” said an angry Singh.
Asked if he felt the Ombudsman did not have enough time to complete his job, Singh said that if he (Ramkarran) felt so then he should have told the Minister and not accept the date then fail to do his job.
“Something went wrong last night (Thursday) I don’t know what happened last night. After the Court said the way was clear for the Elections to be held today (yesterday). So one could say that the Ombudsman has overruled the Court,” Singh lamented.
Sources told Kaieteur Sport that efforts were made to ensure that yesterday’s elections were postponed despite the Court’s decision.
Efforts to contact Minister Ramson yesterday proved futile since he was at Parliament all day.