Appeal to GECOM Chair on Polling Places

Feb 26, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Madame Chair of GECOM Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh’s approval number is taking a beating over the decision to shut down polling stations that will create hardship for tens of thousands of voters. Her reputation is being badly hurt. This is a major finding of an ongoing tracking opinion poll being conducted by this writer for NACTA.
Too many voters are affected by GECOM’s decision a week ago to reduce the number of polling stations. Some respondents in the poll describe the act as ‘mischievous’ and worse, a conspiracy ‘to manipulate’ the outcome of the election. Others see it as tied to skullduggery to influence the results of the election. There is much anxiety among voters on whether they will be able to exercise a constitutional right to vote.
Many legal minds say the doctrines of fairness and equality of access to polling places are being violated by forcing voters out of their communities to cast ballots – creating unnecessary hardships and encumbrance to voting. Voters are pleading on the Chair, a former judge herself, appealing to her sense of fairness, to reconsider the decision to reduce the number of polling stations and restore them, so as to facilitate easy access to their traditional place of voting.
When Madame Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh was appointed the Chair of GECOM last July, she started out on a very high approval rating in the 70th percentile. People described her as person of integrity; they could trust and as someone who would deliver free and fair elections. They reposed confidence in her professionalism as a fair and neutral professional on electoral and judicial matters. Her approval rating was the highest for public officials in the country, way above the President and Opposition Leader.
Since then, Chair Claudette Singh’s favourability numbers declined sharply to the 40th percentile by December as a result of some errors of judgment related to electoral lists. Her approval was on the mend reaching the 50th percentile by late January.
People began to repose confidence in her again that she would deliver credible elections. And then came the decision a week ago to reduce the number of polling stations, that has the potential to disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters, by forcing them out of their communities to vote elsewhere, without any public hearing or consultations. Many don’t even know where they have to go to vote, saying they have not been informed.
The nation at large, find the decision to close some polling places inexplicable, with some saying it is ‘irrational’. This decision is hurting the Chair’s approval and favourability ratings (dropped to the 30th percentile) even among many who have been cheering her leadership ability.
GECOM’s approval rating has also sunk to the 20th percentile in what voters describe as a poor decision at this late hour to close many polling stations creating undue hardship. Tens of thousands of voters are worried that they would not be able to cast ballots. They complain that they are being inconvenienced, while other voters are not. They protest that they have to travel far distances to vote while others are voting in their communities, creating unequal conditions that can be grounds for legal challenge. This, legal minds say, is a violation of the principle of equality.
The latest act has the effect of damaging the Chair’s credibility and reputation. Voters appeal to her to restore the polling places.
Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

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