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Urgent clarifications demanded of GECOM

Apr 29, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Please permit me to seek some urgent clarification from the Chief Election Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Mr Keith Lowenfield, on a few critical issues.
Polling Day Staff (Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers, Poll Clerks, Ballot Clerks and Information Clerks) were all told that if they are employed to work in one electoral district but are registered in another (for example, if I am registered in District 10 but living in District 4 and working as a Polling Day staff in District 4);
1. They will NOT be given Certificates of Employment; and
2. They will NOT be able to vote as proxies.
Subsequently, some Deputy Returning Officers have told a few Polling Day staff that they will be allowed to vote as proxies, but this revelation is kept almost classified. Other Deputy Returning Officers are telling their staff that such persons will have to either forfeit their vote for the Election Day job, or just commute to wherever they are registered to vote, and forfeit the Election Day job.
These realities require urgent addressing. The Guyana Elections Commission has a mandate to enfranchise every citizen who is of age to vote, and if Polling Day staff are required to forfeit their voting at the behest of the Guyana Elections Commission, then the Commission is operating in contravention of its own reason for being. This is untenable, and it renders the Commission unfit to hold elections.
Considering the fact that proxy applications and appointments must be made no later than 10 days before Election Day, you must address this issue immediately, Mr CEO! And if Polling Day staffers are unable to apply to vote as proxies before the deadline, you and your Commission will have to relax that deadline to facilitate these persons. After all, it is your Commission’s rule that makes it clear that persons employed by the Commission on Election Day qualify to vote with Certificates of Employment and as proxies. So for the memo to have been in circulation informing such persons that they would not be able to vote as proxies is already an untenable blunder on your part. Now fix this immediately! Thank you.
Tabia Drakes

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