Despite pushback, Jagdeo says draft electoral reform document expected by June

May 23, 2021 News

Kaieteur News– Despite criticism from persons from the political opposition and a local human rights body over the International Republican Institute (IRI) supported electoral reform initiative, Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has announced that the draft document will be ready by next month.
During a press conference on Friday, Jagdeo said, “We’ve solicited from the public all of the issues that they would like to see amended in the law. The idea is to make more transparent and to define responsibilities in the Act that are unambiguous and thirdly, to put in place a set of penalties for people [who] tried to steal the elections.”
Over the past weeks, Government had announced that it was partnering with the IRI through a United States-funded project to lay the foundation for the much-needed electoral reforms. However, the A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) opposition had objected to the IRI’s role in the process, claiming that foreigners should not be conducting Guyana’s reforms. It complained too about not being consulted before the project was rolled out. Added to this, Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) issued a statement calling for a suspension of the IRI’s involvement in the electoral reform process, recommending instead that CARICOM gets the job.

Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo

Jagdeo noted that after the document is finished it will be sent to the various political parties in the country, civil society bodies, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the international community as well as the public for feedback. He said that the draft amendment bill is likely to be in place by the “end of June.”
In the statement the GHRA noted among other things, that the IRI consultations towards electoral reform were missing a number of essential factors in the preparatory process. For instance, the GHRA said that electoral reform should only come after there is a compromise between the two political parties.
“Then people would have three months in Guyana to give their input. And we will look at issues right from registration to declaration of the results so everything that is not unambiguous, not transparent etc. We made it clear that we want SOPs [Statements of Poll] in the public domain before the tabulation starts, that sort of thing,” he said.
The VP noted that when that’s done, a draft bill taking into account the input given will be presented to the Parliament, where the Parliamentary Opposition will once again have an input. He noted too that the amendments to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) are critical to prevent electoral fraud.

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