GECOM to hold internal discussion on elections law reform

May 07, 2022 News

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…opposition says submission must represent views of all parties

Kaieteur News – Opposition Commissioners at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are looking for full discussions to be held regarding the reform of the Representation of the People’s Act (RPA); the legislation which deals directly with elections in the country.

Despite recent utterances by Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo that the government had received most of its contributions on a draft RPA from civil society, GECOM Commissioner, Vincent Alexander has made it clear that whatever was presented to the government did not properly reflect the views of all parties.
Alexander told the Kaieteur News that opposition commissioners had expressed dissatisfaction, when GECOM Chairwoman, Claudette Singh announced that she had made submissions to the government on behalf of the elections body. “We said we did not know anything about that,” Alexander reported. The Commissioner, representing the interest of the A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), said that he as well as affiliate commissioners submitted preliminary contributions on the matter involving the elections reform law. The commissioners had requested however, for “a more detailed discussion” to be held regarding the contributions of all involved. No further discussion was held, Alexander disclosed.
He noted however that the GECOM chair appears to have submitted the preliminary contributions of the opposition commissioners to the government without the necessary discussions.

People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Commissioner Bibi Shadick also highlighted that she had given her contributions to the government, but reported that she has no interest in partaking in any internal discussion, Alexander said. Additionally, he reported that meetings where discussions about the election reform law are expected were adjourned before they got to the item. In fact, the commissioner continued that GECOM’s legal officer also requested to submit contributions, but to date the Commission has not discussed what was presented.
On the topical issue of removing the names of dead persons from GECOM’s voter’s list, VP Jagdeo had proposed a method to address the problem. At a press conference last Friday, he suggested that annually, the Chief Election Officer (CEO) would have to prepare a list of all the dead people from the General Register Office. The information would be publicized and also provided to political parties, as part of a transparent process, before those names are removed.
Alexander told the newspaper that firstly, the methodology proposed had been suggested before and that the current process already allows on a monthly basis for the General Registrar Office (GRO) to provide the names of those registered deaths.

Secondly, Alexander said, “not everyone who dies is registered.” He said especially those persons who are registered here in Guyana but die overseas. And there is no mechanism for capturing and addressing this matter, Alexander continued. He submitted that there may very well be, “…thousands of names of persons who would have died overseas; and their identification cards manipulated,” something Alexander and other commissioners believe to have occurred during the 2020 general elections.
In a public missive, Alexander said that Jagdeo’s proposal does not address the fact that the GRO’s list does not include those whose deaths are not registered. “Jagdeo, the PPP, the Government and its agents resist and refuse to support any mechanism, which would capture this subset of “ghosts”. There is therefore presently no mechanism for their removal.”
Alexander claimed that hard evidence was presented to show that votes were cast in the names of persons who are dead and/or were not present at the last elections but, “that evidence languishes at GECOM, and in a Petition, which the PPP is fighting tooth and nail not to be pronounced on in a judicial process.”
“GECOM’s refusal, to date, to review the conduct of the elections, including validating or invalidating information that statutory bodies brought to its attention about dead and substitute voters, raises serious questions about GECOM’s motive and integrity, in the conduct of its affairs.” In this regard, the commissioner accused the Commission and not it’s Secretariat.
Alexander said that a commitment was given by the GECOM Chair at their last meeting to have the contributions to the draft Representation of the People’s Act discussed after a demand was made for same. These discussions are expected at the election’s body next meeting.
Alexander said that the upcoming discussions are important so that what is submitted to the government reflects the various views of the Commission; which are the common views and the minority views. In essence a “complete submission” is what must be given to the government, representing the contributions of all sides.

 

 

 

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