Time to move forward

Aug 28, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had little choice but to abort house-to-house registration. She also was within her authority to have so ordered without a vote by the Commissioners.
The Chief Justice had ruled that the names already on the list of electors could not be removed except where provided for in the law – that is, if they are dead or ineligible to be electors. As such, the Chairperson of GECOM was left with very little choice other than to abort the highly costly house-to-house registration since this would have rendered it irrelevant.
An appeal was filed against aspects of the Chief Justice’s decision. But this appeal is not likely to be treated as urgent as the one’s dealing with the no-confidence motion. And in any event, the Chief Justice did rule that house-to-house registration was constitutional, so the only issue is whether a new database can erase those who were in the existing database and are eligible to be electors.
Even if the Court of Appeal finds the grounds of appeal attractive, this does not become a basis for house-to-house registration, because the Commission can find ways of taking off those who are dead from the list and to prevent votes from being cast in the name of those who have migrated.
The Chairperson of GECOM, being a former judge, would have understood very well these issues and would have come to a decision that you did not need house-to-house registration to ensure that those who are off the list are now on the list. As such, she did the right thing by asking that the exercise conclude by August 31, 2019.
A Claims and Objections period is likely now to be launched. APNU+AFC will now have the opportunity to produce the 200,000 errors, which it claims that are on the list. In a previous election, the PNCR had tried this gimmick. The party photocopied tracts of the voters’ list and submitted it to GECOM claiming that these persons did not exist or were not supposed to be on the list. It was a sickening attempt at mass disenfranchisement.
The decision of the Chairperson now paves the way for elections, possibly by the end of October – that’s if the PNCR does not pull one of its old tricks. But there is an issue which must be addressed also during the Claims and Objections period.
More than 350,000 persons were likely to have been registered during house-to-house registration and this was done without any monitoring from the Opposition. There is therefore a need to ensure that there was no illegal registration during the house-to-house exercise.
One way of dealing with this would be for the Commission to publish a list of all new registrants, including those who have reached 18 years as at the eligibility date. This list should then be subject to verification checks during an extended Claims and Objections period. The funds which are left over from house-to-house registration can be used for verifying these new registrants. This should go a long way towards satisfying those who had boycotted the house-to-house registration on the assumption that it was illegal and intended to frustrate holding of elections within the three-month period following the decision of the CCJ.
The Chairperson acted within her authority to abort house-to-house registration. Such a decision does not require a vote by the Commission. The present house-to-house registration commenced under an instrument issued under the hand of the former Chairperson, so it is was quite in order for it to be also ended by virtue of an instruction from the new Chairperson.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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