CARICOM recommends political audit for GECOM

Jun 16, 2020 News

– Says it failed its obligation to act independently

By Shikema Dey

The three-member CARICOM Scrutinizing Team yesterday in their report recommended a “political audit” for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) citing that the political nature of the seven-member Commission headed by Chairman, Ret’d Justice Claudette Singh resulted in their failure to act independently.

GECOM Chair, Claudette Singh with Opposition and Government Nominated Commissioners

In the damning report, the CARICOM team pointed out that Electoral Management bodies constitute one of the most important institutions of democracy, and that they are “generally viewed as guardians of the democratic order.”
It said that while GECOM is widely described as an “independent body”, most problems lied in the Commission being “undoubtedly political.”
“…and herein lies most of the problems, the paralysis and the factionalism experienced by that body,” the report said.
The CARICOM Team stressed that “Internal discord acutely manifested in the public posturing of Commissioners, is the norm in Guyana and was on full and ugly display in the 2020 Elections and its aftermath.”
This publication should note that on numerous occasions, throughout the 2020 electoral process and the national recount, Guyanese were fed contrasting narratives and oftentimes emotional comments by Government-appointed Commissioners, along with Opposition-appointed Commissioners.
The behaviour of the six Commissioners, the report said was “unsurprising”, given the tribalised nature of politics, and that they are functions of ethnic based politics in Guyana. What is obvious, the report said, was that the structural independence of GECOM from the machinery of Government is not “equated with its impartiality.”
The Commission has a seven-member structure with three members appointed by government, three by the opposition and a Chair selected on what is supposed to by a constitutional arrangement in which the Leader of the Opposition submits names from which the President chooses one. After Granger’s unilateral selection of James Patterson was overturned as unconstitutional by the Caribbean Court of Justice, consensus was finally reached between him and Bharrat Jagdeo on Justice Claudette Singh.
“Indeed from its beginning, given the essential political distrust and ethnic polarization in the country, GECOM was never conceptualized as an institution which exemplified autonomy from partisan political influences,” the report noted.
With specific reference to the 2020 electoral impasse, the CARICOM team highlighted that it affords Guyana the clear opportunity for a revision of its electoral governance system, most notably, the GECOM “on the basis of its less than stellar performance.”
In their recommendations, the report stated that “A political audit of GECOM, both the Commission and administrative arm is urgently warranted,” and made a call on the incoming victors to expedite one immediately citing that “GECOM betrayed its obligations to behave impartially and independently.”
Additionally, the team urged an immediate rethinking of the structural organization of GECOM, particularly with respect to the selection of Commissioner.
“To maintain GECOM in its present form would be a tragedy for the nation and the people of Guyana. GECOM is a creature of the dominant political parties, and there is consequently little interest on the part of the Commissioners in ensuring that elections and the electoral environment are conducive to integrity based elections which will reflect the will of the people.”
The Commissioners, the team said, “are primarily, though not exclusively, dominated by the ethos of posting their respective parties to political victory.”

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