Calls grow for major review of 2020 elections

May 16, 2022 News

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– Opposition commissioners, civil society group see this as key to electoral reform

By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – Opposition Commissioners will reiterate their call for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to order a review of the body’s operational procedures when they meet with Attorney General Anil Nandlall later this week.
Kaieteur News understands that the elections body has been invited to discussions with the Attorney General come Thursday. This meeting will facilitate exchanges pertaining to the draft Representation of the Peoples Act (Amendment) Bill and Regulations.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had said two Fridays ago that GECOM and civil society group, Electoral Reform Group (ERG) had provided the most “substantive” contributions in the consultations so far. He said that the AG and Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister Gail Teixeira were thus instructed to meet with the two groups. The AG met with the ERG on May 9. A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Commissioner, Vincent Alexander told the Kaieteur News that the opposition commissioners are looking forward to meeting the AG as the issue of reviewing the faults of the 2020 General Elections is among the very pertinent matters key to any beneficial reforms of election operations.
Alexander said that the proposal to review the 2020 General Elections was already on the table at the Commission level and, “that in principle, it was accepted.” However, when it came to actually ordering that a review process be initiated, it was said that the commission could not facilitate such as it was occupied with the ongoing registration process. Alexander said that his answer to that was that the review was absolutely necessary at the present time since it would have influence on the process concerning local government elections and should be addressed before.
Alexander further explained, that information which was submitted to the government by Chairwoman Claudette Singh purporting to be the contributions of GECOM to the reform election laws and “which was internally circulated, has that in it.” He clarified that it is not that GECOM would conduct the review since it would involve the Agency itself, “but that GECOM could commission such as review.” At this point, the Opposition Commissioner continued, there seems to be some kind of resistance from the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic Commissioners and the Chairperson to have the review conducted. This he said is in spite of glaring inconsistencies that occurred during the 2020 elections, such as the 47 ballot boxes that were counted without supporting documents. A review would shed light on all claims of election rigging alleged by parties that contested the 2020 process.
PPP Commissioner Bibi Shadick told the Kaieteur News that she would be accepting the Attorney General’s invitation to Thursday’s discussions once it is done virtually. The Minister who highlighted personal health reasons said that she has been staying away from crowds for quite some time given the COVID situation, but would conduct her duties virtually. She noted however that she has some of her contributions to be made to the draft reform discussions. On the matter of the internal review of the 2020 elections, Shadick did not state categorically whether she supported it or not. When asked about Alexander’s statement on the internal circular that allegedly includes a review of the 2020 elections, she said that she was unaware of such, before offering that “Alexander says all kinds of things” in the media.
At the meeting with the AG, the ERG called for President Irfaan Ali to honour his statement to investigate the 2020 elections fiasco. A statement from the AG’s office quoted the civil society body as saying, “The ERG observed that upon assumption of office, the President had stated that there would be a thorough investigation into the political crisis following the March 2 elections in 2020, but this has not occurred. Such an investigation is a critical step toward diagnosing the causes of problems and will better guide reform proposals.”
Alexander told the Kaieteur News that since the ERG said that it was not in the business of making contributions to reform election laws at this time; statements by the government that they received “substantive” contributions from the group seem misrepresented. In a Stabroek News Sunday report, “ERG wants societal talks on electoral reform, not offering prescriptions” ERG coordinator Dr. Desmond Thomas said that the group at this stage can only advocate for meaningful dialogue among Government, Opposition and civil society, apart from raising awareness in society about the need for electoral reform. He was quoted as saying that, “At this stage of the Electoral Reform Group’s (ERG) operations, our main focus for electoral reform is dialogue and making people more knowledgeable about how the electoral system works, its strengths and weaknesses. We are not into the idea of making prescriptions at the moment.”
Alexander said that the government is giving the perception that there is widespread consultation ongoing, when in fact calls are getting louder for real public discussions to be held. The Stabroek report also quoted the ERG coordinator as saying that, “Government has been kind of acknowledging the need for consultations”. Given such statements, Alexander reiterated his rejection of government’s claim that it received “substantive” contributions from the civil society group and GECOM. He said that where the Commission is concerned, there has been no internal discussion on the election reform contributions and therefore, the government could not receive any submissions claiming to be that of the agency as a collective. Alexander said opposition commissioners made initial contributions to Commission but specifically asked that detailed discussions be held as a collective so that the document on behalf of GECOM would be comprehensive in highlighting the various positions such as common and minority views. Shadick had told Kaieteur News that she made her submissions directly to the government as a citizen of Guyana and was not interested in GECOM’s internal discussions, especially since, “it took so long to get its house in order.” Justice Singh told the newspaper as well that, “something always comes up” before the Commission could get to the election reform discussions. The matter was back on the agenda at last Tuesday’s statutory meeting but Alexander said that the commission did not get past its minutes. Again, no discussions were held.
The opposition Commissioner took further note that the AG stated in its ERG meeting, that while the government is committed to electoral reform, it was only dealing with statutory changes to the Representation of the People Act at this time, specifically excluding changes to the Constitution,” and that the AG took many critical issues off the table for consideration, including several matters listed in the ERG submission. In that regard, Alexander questioned the type of consultation that is really being held.
Statutory changes to election procedures do not have the same effect as constitutional changes, which deal with important administrative matters. This would include for instance, the mechanism offered by Vice President Jagdeo to remove the names of dead persons from the voters’ list in contrast to the removal of the names of dead persons from the constitutionally backed Register of Registrants. The ERG thus maintained its call for sustainable electoral reform, which it said requires comprehensive social consensus with effective civil society involvement. The group told the AG during their meeting that, “the narrow focus on the RoPA amounts to reinforcing a system in dire need of reform instead of fixing it.”
In terms of the 2020 elections fiasco, the PPP has accused the APNU+AFC of producing false documents to purport their victory in the last election, while the APNU+AFC is accusing the governing party of using the documentation of deceased and absent persons to vote in their favour. Three former GECOM employees, including the Chief and Deputy Elections Officers, an opposition member and activist have been charged and brought before the court for conspiring to defraud voters, while the High Court has taken possession of 2020 Statements of Poll and Statements of the Recount, for safe keeping.
A review of the 2020 elections fiasco, along with comprehensive reform of election laws is a main concern to numerous stakeholders to, “deliver elections that are free from suspicion and readily acceptable to major stakeholders”.

 

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