No GECOM chairperson should experience such venom – former Chairman, Dr. Surujbally

Mar 05, 2017 News

After more than a decade and a half as the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), lending a fiery brand to one of the toughest public positions, Dr. Steve Surujbally, on Tuesday spent his last day.

Free at Last: Former GECOM Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally

It had not been an easy road with Dr Surujbally, who said that he wants to now spend time with his wife, and making it clear that no GECOM chairperson should ever experience some of things that he has faced.
These include persons who journeyed to his city home to protest elections results a few years ago.
“The truth be told, no Chairman should be subjected unabatedly and relentlessly, with ever increasing venom, to the type of harassment and provocation which are solely based on disgruntlement over the outcome of the polls — (without reason),” Dr. Surujbally said during a media engagement in GECOM’s Boardroom, Kingston, last week.
His departure has created a political stalemate with the Coalition Government and Opposition disagreeing on the interpretation of Constitution on the criteria used to select a new Chairperson.
President David Granger has rejected a list submitted by Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, saying that the candidates do not meet the requirements. The two sides are unable to agree whether the candidates should be a judge or have qualities of a judge.
Dr Surujbally, a veterinarian by profession, made it clear that he has experienced a number of attacks as chairman. While not naming anyone or a political party, he said, “Of course, there will be those who will migrate from under the rocks where they were hiding, and they will in their emergence carry out attacks with which they were too cowardly to confront me when I was in office. I dare say that any such damnation, well spiced with calumnies and unfounded allegations, will come from persons [groups] who have an agenda, the principal constituent of which is to besmirch GECOM’s achievements.”
He pointed to a few false Statements of Poll (SoPs) which suddenly appeared with the “sole objective of tarnishing our image, an image which we assiduously cultivated by ensuring that all the necessary elements associated with credible elections were developed and placed into the whole structure of optimal elections management.”
According to the former chairman, “Everyone” knew that those SOPs could never have passed through the “rigorous scrutiny” of the commissioners and GECOM staff.
“They could never have been counted and could never have been included in the final total. Right at the commencement of my term in office, some scandalous utterances were made — none of which had even an iota of credence.”
One particular time stood deep in his memory- December 2011. It was shortly after national elections on which the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) returned to Government but lost it parliamentary majority by one seat to the Opposition.
“I have experienced people of unknown origin and without any group claiming responsibility for their actions coming to my home, with their supposedly meaningful (spiritual) incantations, accompanied with eggs, rice, fire and water mumbo-jumbo, to denounce my decisions (and not realizing that such fetishism can only work on subjects who believe in such invocations).
“What their despicable actions served to do, however, was terrorize the neighbourhood, frighten young impressionable children and disturb ailing old people, and making Guyana the laughing stock of the Caribbean and further afield.”
He also spoke of the protests of the PPP after the May 2015 elections.
“The Chairman has had, over the last few months, to withstand “picketers” and “protestors”, a motley bunch of placard carriers, chanting that he must go — without ever being able to spell his name correctly. (We have the pictures and the footage). Now, please understand that personally I can withstand such pressures.
“A Chairman must not only be pachyderm but resolute and fearless. My argument, however, is that the subjection of a GECOM chairperson to continuous abuse must not be considered par for the course.”
Dr Surujbally believed that such actions do not adhere to the tenets associated with democracy.
“Forget the position of Chairman. As a citizen of our beloved country, it is heartrending to witness the depth to which political parties can sink — as they seek to erode the credibility of a tested and proven elections management body.
In Guyana, elections must be considered the most important tile in the mosaic of democracy. Such confounded misbehaviour against GECOM must cease. Win or lose, the behaviour of the combatants must be gracious. Words and expressions used must not reflect the banalities associated with the gutter.”
Dr Surujbally was proud of GECOM’s history of never being contentious, never hostile. “And, believe me, we could be. Only recently, when the CEO (Keith Lowenfield) was attacked viciously and his character assaulted, he behaved with decorum. It was especially worthy of him when he said that he had no intention of allowing himself to be tried and convicted in the newspapers.
“He said that there is a process that must be followed relative to state audits/forensic audits. All defences, all explanations would be given to the relevant and legal authorities at the appropriate time, if necessary. I subscribe to that approach.”
Dr Surujbally said that he hopes his successor will have a less difficult environment in which to work.
“I am prepared to give whatever advice he or she may request on any particular matter.”
He disclosed that since the 2011 elections, he had requested release from the job.
“I visited the leaders of the main political parties. They all felt and demanded that I should stay on — and I did. Now no more. If I may paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King: Free at last, God Almighty, free at last. Perhaps my departure will stimulate and alacritize the process which will finally find my replacement.”
Last week, the outgoing Chairman called for the composition of the commission to be changed in the future to reflect a less partisan group.
GECOM is the body that overlooks national and local government elections in Guyana.