‘Instruments that afforded 2020 election fiasco still in place’

Aug 22, 2022 News

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…Opposition calls for clean voters’ list, biometrics ahead of LGE

By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government said it is prepared to declare a date for the holding of Local Government Elections (LGE) as soon as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) indicates its readiness.

Second Vice President and PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo told media operatives Friday that his party is ready to head to the polls, but will not be granting some demands of the Opposition ahead of the local elections. “The PPP will be contesting elections,” the Vice President said. “LGE shall take place. We don’t know the timing because we don’t control that, but the PPP will participate.”The VP went on to explain that, “We have already gone on an elections footing (and) we will be ready, whether elections are held this year or next year. We don’t control when that happens…but we will be ready any time.”

Jagdeo addressed however, recent statements by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, who expressed the concerns of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to have a fresh voters’ list heading into local polls. The Opposition has argued strongly that the current voters’ list is bloated and provides room for elections fraud and rigging; a claim they have intensified since the difficult 2020 elections.  The Opposition, through its GECOM representatives has thus called for the implementation of biometric technology to be utilised in time for the local government elections.

During his press conference last Friday, Jagdeo made it clear that there will be no clean list for the LGE given a High Court ruling regarding the manner in which persons names could be removed from the voters’ list. Jagdeo said that the Opposition’s call is seeking to have the government act illegally by going against the ruling of the High Court and dismissing the Constitution where removing the names of voters from the list is concerned. Jagdeo said that the Opposition will soon have to “backtrack” on them not going to elections without a clean voters’ list because, “…trust me there cannot be a new voters’ lists before the local government elections…” he told the media.

On the matter of biometrics, the Vice President is adamant that the Opposition is trying to place the PPP in a trap by getting them to make official a procedure, and then turning around to call the act illegal.  Jagdeo said that the government supports the use of biometrics to improve polling day controls. “However, we will not support the use of biometrics on people’s right to vote.”  The VP suspected that the push for the implementation of the biometric system may very well be a move similar to the 1997 Esther Pereira case where he said, the government and Opposition had agreed on a procedure to use identification cards for voting and when the Opposition loss the elections, filed a petition claiming that the new procedure was illegal.  As a result of that, Jagdeo said the PPP had two years in office cut.

“I think this is precisely the trap they are hoping to set once again,” Jagdeo charged, “that should we go to Parliament, we pass a law on biometrics to prevent people from voting only on the basis of these biometrics, and then they (Opposition) lose the elections and they go back to court again using the same challenge that they did in 1997… We are not going to fall into that trap again,” the VP declared.

In response to the Jagdeo’s statements, Shadow Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Ganesh Mahipaul said that Guyana’s priority at this point, should be to ensure that credible elections are held in country, and sees this occurring through the use of biometric technology and a new voters’ list. Mahipaul said that the PPP, the international community and the APNU+ Alliance For Change Coalition have all recognized the need for a clean voters’ list.

He said that the elections 2020 was marred with anomalies, abnormalities and irregularities as documented in the observation reports following the recount of all ballot boxes and “everyone that participated in the National Recount would agree with me that the bloated voters’ list is responsible for what I concluded was systemic fraud in elections 2020.”

Mahipaul said it is thus “dishonest and duplicitous to hear Second Vice President Jagdeo basically saying no to house to house registration which will guarantee our nation a clean voters’ list.” He charged that “Yes Local Government Elections are long overdue, but why must we compromise the integrity of the elections by having a bloated and faulty voters’ list?” Mahipaul asked. The Opposition member said that “Guyanese deserve honesty, transparency and accountability within this democratic process in this democracy, and with a clean voters’ list, the real will of the people will be reflected in the LGE and General and Regional Elections.”Mahipaul urged that the voters’ list must be cleaned. “Let us have house to house registration and head to the polls so that the real will of the people can be reflected in their representative and government.”

In 2015, while in Opposition, the PPP had called for a new voters’ list to be compiled on the basis of a fresh house to house enumeration. They called for enhanced bio-metrics and electronic voting among other reforms. Following Parliament’s recess, Vice President Jagdeo said that changes will be made to the Representation of the People’s Act (RoPA) come October. It will include among other things, the splitting of Region 4 into sub-districts, reduced discretionary power of the Chief Elections Office, polling places being identified ahead of elections day, and among others, a manual on the conduct of elections publicized three months before the elections.

 

 

 

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