No engagement from AG office on electoral reform within past year – IRI

Jul 08, 2022 News

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– Nandlall says Govt will engage group at a later stage

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News  – While there have been initial engagements between the office of the Attorney General (AG) and International Republican Institute (IRI) on matters related to Guyana’s much anticipated electoral reform, those discussion have not progressed further within the past year.

This is according to Resident Programme Director of the IRI, Dorota Ryzy. Ryzy responded to email from this publication on the status of the IRI’s work with electoral reform particularly with the AG’s office.  This comes even as the Government of Guyana forges ahead with efforts towards reviewing the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) to iron out ambiguous provisions and include penalties for persons attempting to carry out electoral fraud.

Both Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and Attorney General, Anil Nandlall SC had previously disclosed that the IRI would be engaged in the process of bringing about a change to the elections laws to prevent acts of fraud.

Ryzy said that during an initial engagement the IRI offered to contract a regional legal expert to support the Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs with reform efforts in an initial meeting with Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall in April 2021.  Later in a follow-up meeting with a government delegation including the AG and Vice President in May 2021, she explained that the offer was restated. However the IRI Programme Director noted that since then, “There was no engagement on this offer over the past year between the AG and IRI.”

Ryzy nevertheless expressed optimism that there will be engagements on providing technical support to the office in the future.  “In May 2022, during a meeting with VP Jagdeo, IRI offered to contract a legal expert to support government through the Ministry of Legal Affairs with consolidating the legal framework for elections,” Ryzy said in her emailed response. According to her, the offer is currently under consideration by the AG.  “IRI looks forward to working with the AG and all Guyanese stakeholders to support strengthening electoral processes in Guyana,” she said.

In the meantime, AG Nandlall in response to queries from Kaieteur News explained that the government has not aborted the plan to engage the group. He noted that the administration is currently involved in the exercise of amending the electoral laws namely the Representation of the People Act. He said too that IRI will be engaged at some point of the exercise, just not at this juncture.

According to Nandlall, from the onset of the exercise, the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) administration made it abundantly clear that electoral reform would be government-driven.

The AG said: “the process requires consultation and input from national stakeholders. We promised that there would be public consultations. One set of the work has been completed and there were public consultations on the Representation of the People Act. Another set of reforms are set to take place and that will also require more consultation.”

“So, it is not that we have rejected the offer of the IRI, we indeed engaged the IRI and explained to them that this component of the work is one which will be done by the government,” he added.

The AG said that the IRI will be engaged at a suitable time for the required support which is to consolidate the electoral laws into one compendium with the relevant laws of Guyana.

Nandlall said that the process to reform the electoral law has gone on smoothly. He assured too, that the reforms being pursued are balanced and in no way intended to create any electoral advantage in favour of any political group or party. “…the work that is being done is intended to create elections machinery that is stronger more transparent and democratic than that which currently exists. The reform is intended to create laws which can in no way be interpreted as self-serving or politically partisan,” the AG assured.

At the interim, the IRI Programme Director has revealed that the programme focuses on providing technical support to key actors (including government, the opposition, the electoral body, and civil society) on regional and international best practices for electoral reform processes while encouraging Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to advocate for electoral reform. “We hope this will better enable Guyanese and their leaders to advance electoral reform for Guyana based on their own priorities. Since April 2021, IRI has engaged more than 40 groups of Guyanese stakeholders and supported discussion spaces on reform. These spaces give opportunity to discuss, in neutral and constructive manner, different stages and aspects of electoral reform and include a program advisory committee to review and build consensus on ideas for reform,” Ryzy said.

 

 

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