Election chief’s job queried

THE Electoral Commission appointment committee will meet today to consider claims that the appointment of Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen is legally flawed.
The committee is res­ponsible for the appointment of the electoral commissioner.
The appointments committee comprised the prime minister as chair, and the opposition lea­der, chairman of the Public Service Commission and the chairman of the permanent parliamentary committee on appointments.
Government officials said last night this legal flaw had the potential of throwing the 2012 gene­ral election into further turmoil.
A brief from the Department of Justice and Attorney-General, addressed to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill as chair of the appointments committee, said Trawen had reached the retirement age of 55 on Nov 15, 2010. He was reappointed on Feb 1, 2010 for a period from Jan 29, 2010, to Nov 15, 2015, when he reaches the compulsory age of 60.
“Trawen’s appointment was made pursuant to section 17(2) of the Organic Law on certain constitutional office holders,” the brief said.
However, government lawyers were questioning the use of this section, arguing that the applicable law was section 14 of the Organic Law on the National and Local Level Government Elections.
Trawen is now into the first 14 months of his se­cond term.
The department had advised that the Electoral Commission appointments committee could itself correct its error.