Opposition reiterates call for biometrics at elections

Dec 01, 2022 News

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…says upgrade should be part of GECOM’s push toward improved process

Kaieteur News – The Opposition party, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) remains firm in its call for the use of biometrics for upcoming elections declaring that the technology should be part of the Guyana Elections Commissions (GECOM) efforts toward upgrading and improving the electoral process.

During the party’s weekly Press Conference Wednesday, Economic and Youth Advisor to the Leader of the Opposition, Elson Low made the case that several countries around the world with larger populations and voting districts use the biometric technology as a mechanism toward an efficient electoral process. He claimed that unlike recent utterances by former House Speaker, Ralph Ramkarran, the use of biometrics does not infringe on administrative and other such restrictions.

The push for the biometrics goes hand in hand with the Oppositions call for a clean voters list which they claim is bloated with deceased and non-resident Guyanese whose names are used to conduct voter fraud. A court order on how persons names can be removed from the list of registrants has caused a virtual halt toward sanitizing the list as GECOM has viewed the  ruling to mean that only new legislation or some other way devised by the Politicians will allow the authority to legally remove names.

Low said that the Ppposition’s calls for a clean voters list and voting by biometrics have prompted a long and vigorous public debate, but noted several errors and misconceptions that continue to be peddled in the public. First he claimed, the use of biometrics at place of poll is not financially, technologically nor administratively prohibited. He said that, “several countries with larger voting populations and geographic areas than Guyana use the technology.” Peru, he highlighted is six times the size of Guyana with a list of elector of about 20M people, “yet it uses finger print biometrics for voting.” Several African countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo are also moving toward the use of biometrics.  Low added that finger print biometric voting kits are highly portable and are designed to work for hours on battery power. “Polling stations with no electricity or blackout will not therefore pose a problem”.

Low went on to say that while calls are being made for the opposition to provide evidence of fraud, it misses a major matter: “that democracy is always a work in progress.”  “We in Guyana must continuously strive to ensure our elections are increasingly accurate efficient and trust worthy. The (2020 elections) recount revealed many illegalities. The few improvements made by GECOM over the last two decades such as counting at the place of poll and use of finger print biometrics for registration must not be sporadic efforts, instead they must reflect an organizational culture that embraces continuous improvement,” Low charged. He continued that Guyana must always seek to make improvements from election to election, more so when credible claims of election flaws and fraud are made. Improvements must also be made irrespective of such claims. “We must not ignore the fact that our elections are still marred by registration of ineligibles, voter impersonation, and multiple voting. As a nation we have done nothing since the last election to improve the standards and credibility of our elections,” Low submitted. He said in fact, “we have made matters worse by, among other things refusing to reactivate the residency requirement.”

The voters list which some stakeholders claim is bloated by some 200,000 names has caused much controversy as some political parties already signaled their reservation in participating in the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE) while others are yet to state their participation. Given the 2020 elections controversy where claims of misconduct were made by both parties, the Opposition is claiming that biometrics would be ideal in ensuring that persons who turn up to vote at polling stations are who they say they are. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is adamant however that what the 0pposition is offering is a means of preventing persons from voting. In a letter by PPP’s GECOM Agent, Clement Rohee on Tuesday, he expressed concern that the bloated list claim was all part of the scheme to have “restrictive measures such as biometrics at polling station.”

Rohee said that “the feigned struggle engineered by the APNU+ AFC for the introduction of biometrics would be in violation of the Constitution and would in effect, impose an additional restriction on each bona fide voter entitled to exercise their constitutional right on Election Day.” The call for biometrics is not a new one however as Opposition Representative at GECOM, Vincent Alexander remained vociferous in his call for the technology to be used. Former PPP Representative, Bibi Shadick , who was replaced by Rohee following her passing last August had told this publication that she was in fact the one to bring the biometrics idea to GECOM more than a year before Alexander’s posture. During that interview last May she said, the biometrics idea has been floating around since the Chairmanship of Dr. Steve Surujbally, who left the GECOM in 2017. Shadick had said that she had made it clear a long time ago that the folios used to identify voters on election day, are “so small” that the idea was presented to load the information onto a laptop and each person’s finger would then be scanned so they could be identified before voting. This, Shadick continued, would also help in preventing any instances of double voting since the system would be integrated. The technology would be able to show if an individual would have voted anywhere else in the country and thus prevent them from doing so again. She suggested at the time that while specialized programs and systems would be needed as well as financing, Guyana could work with foreign partners, especially those countries that already have the biometric system implemented in their country.

During one of his Press Conferences in August at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, declared the governing party refusal for biometrics – he said that his party was not going to allow the Opposition to encourage them into passing a law in Parliament that would prevent people from voting only on the basis of biometrics. He said because if the Opposition were to lose the election they could go to and challenges the provision as they had done in 1997 and interrupt the party’s win. “We are not going to fall into the trap again,” Jagdeo declared.

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