GECOM CEO overstepping his bounds – PPP Commissioners

Feb 09, 2019 News

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By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Those who sit on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in representation of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), are of the opinion that the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, is overstepping his bounds. In fact, the PPP/C-nominated Commissioners—particularly Robeson Benn—believe that Lowenfield is acting in harmony with a “broader strategy” to delay the holding of General and Regional Elections.
PPP/C Commissioners, Benn and Sase Gunraj, hosted a press conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader yesterday. This was hours after Lowenfield hosted his own press conference.
Commissioner Benn was keen to point out that Lowenfield represents the GECOM Secretariat and not the actual Commission.
“As far as I am concerned, GECOM will only pronounce on that matter when all the Commissioners would have sat down and voted on the issue. Lowenfield cannot go by himself and say that he cannot be ready because he needs 105 days…I am disregarding—completely—the notion that elections has to be held in 105 days; that is my personal position.”

Benn said that the pronouncements made by Lowenfield are not GECOM’s positions, “The CEO is not a commissioner. The Commission is the Chairman and six Commissioners.”
Benn referred to online media reports that the Chairman, James Patterson, declined to answer questions from the media on certain issues. Benn said, “The Chairman is an old judge and juror and all these things. He probably knows why he was silent. Lowenfield is not authorized to speak on this matter because there was no vote.”
Benn opined that there is no option beyond the March deadline.
He noted that the Commissioners were not invited to the press conference to give any other opinion, “which would have been a fair thing to do and would not have left us with having to come here to rail against it.”
Benn said that the Constitution does not give Lowenfield the authority to delay election, but instructs him to be ready on demand.
“CEO Lowenfield’s business and duty is to prepare for an election,” said Benn. He added that instead of complying with the constitution, GECOM Secretariat is either deliberately, or out of fear, making all efforts to delay elections.
Benn said that Lowenfield is “creating opportunities, in my view, for bigger problems down the road.”
Commissioner Gunraj told the media that Lowenfield’s pronouncements yesterday would only fuel anxiety. He said that he could not understand the change in Lowenfield’s position all of a sudden, when the Secretariat had originally said that elections could have been held in the prescribed period.
He said that weeks back, the Commission was given a list of options. The first option presented to the Commission in January was the holding of election by the constitutionally mandated deadline. “It was labelled option one. Later on, we were told that no priority was given to that option. But the fact that it was presented as an option means that the Secretariat contemplated the holding of election in that time.”
Gunraj said that it is now very disturbing that the Secretariat is presented all “airy-fairy” stories about why elections cannot be held in the prescribed time.
Gunraj noted too that when the Secretariat originally presented that option to act in accordance with the constitution, it did not give any reason that should cause GECOM not to be able to meet the deadline.

Gunraj said that GECOM commissioners were only recently presented work plans.
He said that in the first set of documents, the secretariat said that it needed a 90-day period for training – that period was then shifted to 105 days. He said that the extension was all within a week. “I shudder to think by next week what number of days will be required.”
The Commissioner said that the PPP sees all of “these tactics” as mere mechanisms for delay.
But, just like Benn, Gunraj reminded, “The constitution has presented one option – that is, to hold election within 90 days.” Gunraj went further to state, “It is not within the domain of the Guyana Elections Commission to speak about any extension about holding elections. That is the function of the National Assembly, which requires a two-thirds majority. It is the responsibility of GECOM to be prepared for the holding of elections when it is called upon to do so.”
Gunraj said that the Constitution which gives rise to GECOM is calling on it to hold elections in a particular timeline. “So to come and say that we cannot hold election and that there is some room for extension is hogwash.”

WITHOUT MERIT
Benn had more to say. He told the media that attempts by GECOM Secretariat to delay are blatant but without merit.
Recalling that GECOM only recently conducted elections, Benn said that he does not understand how GECOM is claiming a certain level of ill-preparedness, when training would have been conducted just last year, and when there is a valid list.
Benn said that he does not understand, “this business of having to check ink and these things.”
He said that the checking of ink and other measures should have been met a long time ago.
“We should have had questions as to their availability since December 22 when we heard that they had the first meeting in respect of elections, as a consequence of the no-confidence vote. For them to come now saying that there are issues of procurement of sensitive items is disingenuous.”
He continued, “These items can be procured in a week…In fact they exist in some measure, and I said to them at the conclusion of the meeting that you’ve just got to call the election commission of Jamaica or Barbados or Trinidad to get some from them.”
Benn then spoke about how hard it is for the Commissioners to extract information out of GECOM Secretariat. He highlighted that it took a long time for Commissioners to even be presented with a work plan.
He said that when General and Regional Elections were held in 2015 after Parliament was prorogued on the threat of a no-confidence motion, Commissioners were promptly presented with a GECOM work plan.
But it is way different now, according to Benn. He said “the only reason I could summarize for this kind of behaviour is that this is a tactic in GECOM which goes along with a bigger strategy out there to delay the holding of national elections as is constitutionally mandated, and this is extremely worrying.”
Benn said that he does not understand why 105 days would be needed for training, even when GECOM said that it is mostly teachers who have to be trained.
“They keep saying they have to train teachers. We have pointed out that the work for General Elections is much simpler than LGE (Local Government Elections). It is of a simpler format and can be imparted quickly, particularly for those who were just trained for local government. Even those who may be new, it is not a difficult thing to impart. I do not know that teachers are so dunce.”

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