Majority GECOM vote re-opens registration

Jul 19, 2011 News

…dissenting Commissioners worry about elections date, finances

A majority vote by the country’s elections body, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), will give persons who have not yet registered another chance to do so, but three of the six members on the body feel the process could be mired by financial and bureaucratic constraints and push the elections date beyond the constitutional deadline.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) met in a special session yesterday to consider re-opening the Claims and Objections period to get more persons to register and came out with a 3-2 majority vote.
This now opens the way for unregistered persons to get themselves on the National Register of Registrants which will form the Final Voters’ List. They will have 10 days, starting July 25, to do so.
Of the six Commissioners, five were present. The Commissioners who voted in favour of the decision were Mahmood Shaw, Keshav Mangal – who were nominated by the incumbent PPP – and Robert Williams, who was nominated by the smaller political parties. Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin, who sit on the Commission based on nomination by the main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), voted against. The other commissioner, Moen McDoom, was absent.
Dr Steve Surujbally vociferously sought to assure that the Commission was not divided, but his adamant view that the re-opening of the Claims and Objections period would not affect the holding of elections by the December 28 constitutional date was not shared by the dissenting Commissioners.
The issue has been a thorny one for political parties, with opposition parties claiming that GECOM was bowing to the demands of the government and the incumbent PPP.
However, the PPP on Saturday defended itself and GECOM, saying that it was the opposition political parties who had first expressed concern about the number of persons who could not register because they did not have their birth certificates.
The party said that it was therefore petty that the parties could now make that claim when the Commission is now moving to act on their concerns.
The Commissioners had already voted unanimously not to take the Claims and Objections period beyond June 9, but one month later GECOM Commissioner Mahmood Shaw brought the proposal to re-open the process.
Shaw, at a press conference called by the Commission, emphasized that none of the parties made a suggestion to re-open the Claims and Objections period, but rather suggested that “something” be done to accommodate those persons who did not have their birth certificates.
Alexander said he did not support Shaw’s proposition because no new facts were put on the table. As far as he was concerned persons had three years within which to get their documents in order, and so there could be no legitimate claim that GECOM sought to disenfranchise anyone.
Alexander said that while he is not against the majority decision, he could see how re-opening the Claims and Objections period could result in “bureaucratic hurdles” and jeopardize the holding of elections by the given constitutional deadline.
According to its previous timeline, GEOM would have been ready for an elections date of October 17, but now with the re-opening of the Claims of Objections period, Dr Surujbally said the new deadline is mid-November, which is just about a month and a half ahead of the constitutional deadline.
The Chief Elections Officer, Gocool Boodoo, admitted that he did not know how many additional persons had now received their birth certificates since June 9 and would wish to register.
But he said he was prepared to carry out the Commission’s directive with financing that the government has committed to providing.
As far as the other dissenting Commissioner (Corbin) is concerned, the Commission possibly only knows about 900 new persons who have collected their birth certificates since the close of the process a month ago, and there is no indication those will come forward to register.
He said he did not vote in favour of the proposition because he fears that re-opening the process could become “cyclical.”
Further, he expressed concern about financing of the exercise, since while the government has said it will provide the funding, the Commission still awaits the release of finance to pay off the $40 million owed to contractors. .
The Chief Elections Officer said while there would be challenges, the implementing Secretariat would find ways and means of dealing with those.
In explaining why he voted in favour of re-opening the Claims and Objections period, Keshav Mangal, who has been a Commissioner for the past 20 years, said his main concern is that all eligible Guyanese are given their constitutional right to vote.
Article 42 of the Guyana Constitution provides the conditions under which persons are entitled to be registered as citizens.
Dr Surujbally pointed to the constitution which says that citizens 18 years or older are eligible to vote, but only if there are registered.
He said the National Registration Act, Chapter 19:08 and the Representation of the People Act, chapter 1:03 provide the methodologies for the conduct of registration and elections respectively.
Dr Surujbally said that “GECOM has never departed from these legal provisions in carrying out its mandate.
He said that GECOM had met with senior representatives of the Justice For All Party (JFAP), the Guyana People’s Partnership (GPP), the PNCR, the Alliance For Change (AFC), the PPP, and the Private Sector Commission (PSC).
He said all of these entities had one common concern, that is, there were many persons who previously could not apply for registration because they were not in possession of their source documents, but who now have those source documents.
“All of these Organisations demanded of GECOM that it try to formulate options which would result in the persons concerned becoming enabled to apply for registration,” Dr Surujbally stated.
As a result, he said yesterday’s decision has taken into account the political parties’ original requests, the fact that there are “no constraints associated with timelines or the law, and with the availability of finances.”
“Also, it must always be kept in our collective cognizance that a complete and credible Voters’ List, one that does not engender protests and accusations of disenfranchisement, is a fundamental requirement for the conduct of elections that would be commonly accepted as free, fair and transparent in accordance with international best practice,” Surujbally declared.
The new Claims and Objections period will involve
(i) the re-establishment of Temporary Offices targeting the entire Guyana,
(ii) the re-hiring of temporary staff to be posted at the various offices,
(iii) the deployment of Mobile Registration Units to far flung hinterland and riverain communities,
(iv) the accreditation of Scrutineers to monitor the registration process, and
(v) the advertisement of the conduct of the exercise via all available media.