Opposition calls for comprehensive electoral reform

Oct 21, 2022 News

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– as govt set to roll out national consultations next week

Kaieteur News – The A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition has reiterated its rejection of ongoing efforts by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration to amend the electoral laws.

The APNU+AFC was at the time responding to a recent report that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance will soon be convening a national stakeholders’ consultation on the draft amendments to Guyana’s electoral laws.  In a statement released on Thursday, the Opposition party said that its previous rejection of the efforts by the Government still stands.

For the Opposition party, local, regional, and national elections must meet three objectives: only eligible persons must be registered—that is, we must have a clean voters’ list, results must accurately reflect the will of those who voted, and every step of the election process must win the trust and confidence of the public, participating parties, and other relevant stakeholders.

Meeting these three objectives, the party said requires that Guyana must embark on urgent and comprehensive electoral reform. According to the APNU+AFC, comprehensive electoral reform must, at minimum, include the following components: a thorough review by GECOM of its performance in managing recent elections; genuine national consultations involving the public, civil society, and the parliamentary political parties.

The party noted that these must be modelled after the 1999/2000 Constitution Reform Commission process. In particular, it said the key elements must include: a multi-stakeholder/expert committee, a consensus chairperson, a public call for oral and written submissions, and public outreaches and hearings, the in-depth involvement of experts on electoral laws, electoral systems, elections technologies, and elections management, and holistic constitutional and legislative amendments or enactments.  We stand ready to lend parliamentary support to all agreed-to changes.

The Opposition said however that the PPP continues to ignore the calls from a range of local and international stakeholders to abandon its unilateral and self-serving scheme on electoral reform. “It continues to recklessly disregard the demand for a clean voters list.  The shenanigans of the PPP will not win the trust and confidence of the public, participating parties, and other relevant stakeholders. It is past time for the PPP to stop its nonsense,” the opposition said in statement.

Consultations

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance announced that it will be convening a national stakeholders’ consultation on the draft amendments to Guyana’s electoral laws on Tuesday October 25, 2022, from 13:00hrs to 16:00hrs at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in Georgetown, Guyana. This consultation is an integral element of the Government of Guyana’s commitment to implement a consultative, inclusive and participatory process regarding electoral reform, the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, headed by Gail Teixeira, the stakeholder consultation forms part of a continuous consultative process which began on November 6, 2021 when the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance published the draft Representation of the People’s (Amendment) (ROPA) Bill and the draft Regulations made under the Representation of the People Act on its social media pages. The public was invited to peruse the draft documents and submit feedback to the Ministry within six weeks; however, after requests for extensions, the Ministry accommodated submissions of feedback well into 2022.

Recommendations were received from a variety of stakeholders including civil society actors, the Guyana Elections Commission, some political parties, and other interested individuals and organisations. These recommendations were consolidated and provided to the Attorney General, who in May 2022, facilitated in-person meetings with the respondents.

Updated versions of the ROPA Bill and Regulations have been made available once again and the new draft amendments to the National Registration Act have also been made accessible for public perusal via a link published on the Ministry’s Facebook pages. To this end, one hundred and fifty-seven organisations have been invited to the upcoming consultation on October 25. These organisations represent a broad cross section of society including political parties, constitutional bodies, civil society organizations in the labour movement, private sector, faith-based, youth, women, LGBTQ, ethnic/cultural, health and rehabilitation organisations, and other civil society actors.

At the upcoming consultation, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, M.P., Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, will make presentations and lead discussions on the draft amendments to the electoral laws including the aforementioned Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2022, Regulations Made Under the Representation of the People Act 2021, and National Registration (Amendment) Bill 2022.

This consultation will be live-streamed on the Department of Public Information’s Facebook page. The public is invited to tune into these consultations via the live-stream to gain more information about the proposed amendments and become further immersed in the legislative reform process. The Government of Guyana remains committed to creating more robust and coherent elections legislation as part of the constantly developing democratic architecture of our One Guyana.

 

 

 

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