The elections conundrum

Jun 04, 2017 Features / Columnists, My Column

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There is once more a stalemate with the appointment of a chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission. President David Granger has rejected a second list presented by the Opposition Leader. Indeed there was a mix of people, some of whom would satisfy the legal requirement, but I can only assume that this rejection was based on the fit and proper requirement.
There was a lot of discussion about this second list, to the point that Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo became incensed. Former Magistrate Maxwell Edwards dissected the list and was accused of attacking the people’s character. But when last I looked, Mr. Edwards’s analysis was accurate. He spoke of a former judge who he said is often ill, of a lawyer who was linked to the legal issue of a third term for the presidency, of people who were agitators for one cause or another.
But this need not have been the case. When the Carter-Price formula was introduced, the aim was to take away the political dictation by the president. The president had the right to appoint the chairman. The commission was seen as a tool under the control of the ruling government.
Such was the state of affairs that in the run-up to the 1992 elections, Dr Cheddi Jagan objected to a number of things. For one, he was not satisfied with the voters’ list. Then he wanted counting at the place of poll. But first he had to get a commission that would level the playing field.
He lobbied so hard that the Carter Centre decided to visit Guyana to help regularize the situation. In the end, former United States President Jimmy Carter and the Prime Minister of Belize, George Price, came up with a formula. This formula allowed the ruling party to select three members and the opposition to select three. The chairman was expected to be neutral, so he held the casting vote.
But Carter said that this situation should only be temporary. He also offered some comments on other things in this plural society, but his suggestions were ruled out of hand. The former president then met with the press to announce that he was never going to come to Guyana again.
All the elections were held using the Carter formula. The political division in the commission was clear. I recall the Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally, telling the press that his commission was apolitical; that all decisions were rooted in the principle of non-partisanship. That was a pipe dream. Which of the commissioners would sit back and see something going wrong for his or her political party?
The team of observers from the Commonwealth Secretariat came and made recommendations for the composition of the elections commission. As far back as the turn of the century, there were recommendations for changes in the electoral system. These recommendations were ignored. One suggestion was that the parties should agree to an elections commission that comprises civic-minded people with no obvious political connection.
At the end of the 2015 elections, these recommendations surfaced once more. One diplomat, at a press conference, said that this government should move immediately, because before one knows, the five years would run out. However, there is no effort to revamp the elections commission, so that we now have Jagdeo tugging at his scalp to get a commission chairman who could be amenable.
Dr Steve Surujbally, who has quit the post, said that it is a difficult job. He spoke of the attacks from commissioners aligned to a particular political party. Of course he had presided over three elections – two of which were won by the People’s Progressive Party. It was not until the 2015 elections that the PPP accused him of cheating.
There were attempts to commit fraud during the count. Not for the first time, there were questionable statements of poll. The first time that I can recall questionable statements of poll, led to a challenge to the elections of 1997. Witnesses testified to seeing unsigned statements of poll, suggesting that these were implanted and the genuine statements removed.
This time around the fraudulent statements were spotted even before they could be inserted into the count. They were spotted by an alert executive and immediately rejected. Needless to say, the PPP was incensed, to the point of arguing that the statements of poll were genuine. It mattered not that they did not have the security marks.
These issues would disappear if there is a move to install a non-partisan commission. Although the members may be supporters of one political party or another, they would not be active campaigners and if called upon, would do the right thing.
There have also been suggestions about the counting. Guyana is one of the few countries in the world where the vote count is not known until days after the elections. In this electronic age, there is nothing to stop the various polling stations from sending the results at the end of the day. While this is the case, something happens in the commission that delays the count.
The people who work in the polling stations could actually photograph the count and send it to their relative parties, so that all would have the same result almost instantaneously. Yet there always seems to be a problem.
I am fast coming to the realization that elections in Guyana will always be contentious. The 1992 elections saw the publication of different voters’ lists. People found their names on the one posted outside the polling place, but could not find them on the list used by the polling agents. This was a case of fraud.
It is such tampering that Carter and the Commonwealth observers have proposed fixes for, but the political powers seem happy with the state of things.
As for the appointment of a chairperson, President Granger seems to want a non-partisan person, but even this is being challenged.

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