Opposition submits documents for criteria and procedure for demarcation of boundaries at GECOM

Jan 26, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – As the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) continues preparation for the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE), Opposition Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, has submitted to the Election body documents dictating the criteria and procedure outlined for the demarcation of boundaries.

Last December, GECOM had cause to reverse the demarcation of constituency boundaries after recognizing that the Local Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall, did not have the power to make such changes. It was noted therefore that the Minister’s actions would affect the voters list since GECOM, as the elections body responsible for issuing the List of Voters, could not provide same based on the constituency boundaries changed by the minister.

Alexander had said then that GECOM would need to go back to its available process and the criteria used for the kinds of mapping on which the list should be issued. As part of the process, Alexander had said that party representatives as well as registration officials would go on the ground and together agree on boundaries where GECOM would have the last say on those demarcations. Alexander told the newspaper yesterday, that as part of the criteria however, GECOM is to take into consideration, geography, communities and their population.

The Commissioner told this newspaper however that he had cause to deliver to GECOM documents that speak to the said criteria and procedure for demarcation, since the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Vishnu Persaud has informed the GECOM that he could not find any document to show the criteria and procedure used by GECOM in this regard. “This criteria involves what to look for; geography, community and population as factors to divide up constituencies,” Alexander highlighted. The Commissioner said that since the CEO said he could not get the requisite documents, he (CEO) disclosed that he would have used his own method to come up with the divided constituencies.

Alexander said that Opposition Commissioners rejected the CEO’s explanation insisting that there are procedures and criteria that have to be used. To not follow the necessary procedure leaves the door open for citizens to be disenfranchised if for example, a community of particular supporters is split, or if supporters of a particular party are bunched with supporters of another party, Alexander explained. He said that criteria usually entail fairly similar numbers of persons in a constituency and other factors that contribute to a balanced configuration within the boundaries. To that end, Alexander said he committed to bringing the documents with the outlined GECOM methodology to be provided to the CEO. This he said was done yesterday morning and the body, now awaits the next step on this matter.

On another matter of concern to Opposition Commissioners in particular, is the hiring of the Commission’s Information Technology Manager to the temporary administrative post of Operations Coordinator to perform the duties of the vacant Deputy Chief Election Office (DCEO). A decision on whether the IT Manager, Aneal Giddings should remain in the temporary post was supposed to be made on Tuesday, but Alexander said that the Chairwoman Justice (retired) Claudette Singh claimed to have had an emergency and deferred the matter to another date. This is despite both Government and Opposition sides of the Commission seeking to have the chair address the matter, Alexander clarified. The matter is an issue for the Opposition since they say the Chair acted outside of her power to second the IT Manager for the temporary post. Alexander in pointing to the law showed that the power to hire senior staff permanent or temporary lies with the Commission and not the Chair alone. He argued too that the IT manager is not suitably qualified for the post as he lacks the requisite experience and as an applicant for the DCEO post, he is given an unfair advantage over applicants as he is now doing the DCEO job under another title. Alexander said the Chair could not take it up on her own either to second the IT Manager for the senior post on request of the CEO, who said that he was burdened with work for LGE in the absence of a DCEO. He said that Giddings’ appointment is another contrived situation where persons were being employed by the Commission without following the available procedures.  Opposition Commissioners want the temporary post rescinded and the DCEO post filled immediately since for months, Alexander claimed applications were sitting with the Commission and the Chair continued to push back the appointment giving the LGE precedence.

The Commissioner found it strange however that Giddings was picked to assist the CEO over the more suitable Assistant Chief Elections Officer. He said too that while Giddings’ appointment was deemed important given the CEO’s work load, he is currently on a two week leave commencing this week.

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• Commissioner, GECOM, Local Government Elections, Nigel Dharamlall, Vincent Alexander

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