No elections should take place until all stakeholders are satisfied that the Voters’ List is genuine

Sep 27, 2014 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
The PNC, now under the broad umbrella of APNU, is masquerading as a champion of democracy and democratic rule. But its actions, both in an out of government, do not match up to its rhetoric. For twenty-four years the PNC denied the citizens of Guyana local government elections and an even longer period before free and fair elections were held.
Before I proceed any further, let me say that I am not opposed to the holding of local government elections since I am convinced that there is no alternative to local democracy or what is referred to as grassroots democracy.
I watched however with much interest the political posturing of David Ganger on the issue of local government election in which he is projecting himself and his APNU as the champion of the democratic cause, when in fact it was his party that was responsible for the rupture of the democratic fabric of the Guyanese society for close to three decades.
The issue is not whether or not to hold elections, but the extent to which those elections truly reflect the will of the electorate. I have vivid recollections of the days when elections were held but these were all farcical and a complete mockery of the democratic processes.
This was so for both local and national elections, but extended also to village elections in the hinterland communities where village captains were ‘elected’ at Congress Place and the results fed to the residents of those communities.
The basic point that I am seeking to make is that the electoral system must not to be perceived to be flawed by key stakeholders, since it could undermine the credibility of the entire process and cast a shadow of doubt over the integrity of the entire electoral contest.
The ruling PPP, through its General Secretary, has on repeated occasions called into question the accuracy of the Preliminary Voters’ List (PVL) which has been found to contain a significant number of dead names and persons who cannot be found. Indeed, the PVL for the first time contains over five hundred thousand registered voters, which exceeded by far the number of eligible voters in the 2011 Official List of Electors (OLE) – and this despite the fact that the recently released census figures showed a marginal decline in the country’s population.
My own view on the matter is that no elections, local or national, should take place until all stakeholders are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the Voters’ List is genuine. I see no reason for GECOM to be overtly defensive of statements made by political parties regarding the authenticity of the list. Instead such statements emanating from political parties should provide the basis for quiet investigation and interrogation of the list, and if found meritorious, should result in immediate corrective action.
What makes elections post-1992 different from all previous elections is the fact that every vote counts. There was a time when voting was nothing but an exercise in futility because of widespread rigging. I have personal experiences of ballot boxes being stuffed with bogus ballots in the presence of polling agents and presiding officers on polling day. Those were the days when the majority of presiding officers were carefully handpicked to ensure that the rigging exercise is aided and abetted.
The Guyanese electorate does not want to go back to those days and are eagerly looking forward to a list that is as accurate and flawless as is humanely possible. There is no point in rushing the process, and setting deadlines for the holding of local government elections can be counterproductive if all of the preconditions for the holding of elections are not there.
Guyana has experienced some embarrassing moments in the past when it comes to elections and even though we have come a long way since the days of rigged elections, every effort must be made to ensure that the integrity of the electoral process is not undermined or perceived to be undermined.
I am of the view that much more work needed to be done by GECOM, especially when it comes to voter education for local government elections. For the first time in our local government history we would have elections which will be done on the basis of a fifty/fifty combination of the constituency and first- past-the-post model. This is groundbreaking and will remove the decades-old method where political parties were the dominant players. The constituency component of the elections would allow for one half of the seats to be filled by independents who would not contest on a party ticket.
This is in my view a significant advance over what obtained in the past and could in a way effectively challenge the dominance of political parties in the governance mechanism at the community level.
For this to happen, there must be a clear and unambiguous demarcation of boundaries and more importantly, these boundaries must be known to every elector. I am not certain how much progress has been made in this regard, but speaking for myself I cannot say that such information is available, and if available, is known to eligible voters in their respective communities.
Hydar Ally

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