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GECOM should not sacrifice adhering to the correct process for the sake of meeting timelines – Alexander
Kaieteur News – Despite the delay in holding the Local Government Elections (LGE), Opposition-nominated commissioner, Vincent Alexander has said that the Guyana Elections Commissioners (GECOM) should not sacrifice ensuring that the correct processes are carried out for the sake of meeting timelines.
Opposition-nominated Commissioner, Vincent Alexander
Alexander was at the time responding to questions over the issues that have prevented GECOM from meeting the schedule for the holding of the LGE which was March 13, but has once again been delayed.
“The Commission has a number of processes that must be adhered to before we go into any type of elections. There are still issues with having a clean list by having the name of dead people removed from it…” Alexander said.
He noted that the Opposition has been lobbying for better systems for a more foolproof electoral process.
“We have proposed the use of the biometric system to help with fingerprint identification technology and voter registration, using the same technology for voter verification, will help cut incidents of duplicate voting recorded in the country’s elections.”
As it relates to the issues report over the demarcation constituency boundaries, the Opposition-nominated commissioners and government-nominated commissioners are at loggerheads over the report. The Opposition members are of the view the correct process of demarcation is not being followed.
“The report clearly reflects the right criteria were not used in the process. The field staff walked around and made recommendations… we won’t consider this report because it was an irregular process,” Alexander said of the matter.
During the meeting of commissioners last week, Government nominated Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, called the refusal a tactic to further drag out the process of arriving at an election date.
The reversal of constitutional boundaries was set by the Government for the purpose of Local Government Elections (LGE).
Last month, GECOM decided on addressing issues concerning the Voters’ List. It was agreed by all Commissioners that Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharmlall does not have the power to demarcate constituency boundaries.
Alexander had explained then that GECOM, as the elections body is responsible for issuing the List of Voters in keeping with legal constituencies. “So, we can’t go ahead and issue a list on a constituency that he (Minister) has created. So, we have to go through our process, approve them and we will have the kinds of mapping on which to issue our list.”
The current situation took rise when the Opposition Political Party, the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) in a court matter highlighted that the current List of Electors was extracted from the list for General and Regional elections. They said that the list did not take into consideration the current boundary changes and thus affects the residency requirement for Electors.
Alexander explained that since the court case brought the issues to light, GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer has already presented proposals for addressing the current setback. The CEO’s proposal submitted that the APNU+AFC is a major stakeholder in the holding of elections and their concerns must be heard. The CEO noted that the Opposition Party is concerned that members of the public were not provided the opportunity to claim entry onto the constituency Register of Voters (ROV) and to make objections to Electors into the constituency’s ROV.
- Alexander, CEO, Chief Elections Officer, GECOM, Local Government Elections, Opposition-nominated, registration, Sase Gunraj, Vincent Alexander, voter registration
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