Nandlall’s insistence that GECOM’s systems are perfect is baseless

Nov 03, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

My recent letter of October 29, 2024 in response to Commissioner Rohee`s of October 26, 2024 and my appearance on Nation Watch gained the attention of Anil Nandlall and occasioned a diatribal response from him, on his programme: Issues in the News.

His response was characterized by innuendoes, misinformation (sometimes outright fiction) and illogicalities.

Innuendoes

He sought to condition the minds of the listeners by claiming that I am an executive member of the PNCR. His intent was to invoke pre-existing biases against the PNCR, thus predisposing the listeners to whatever he had to say. Fact be told, I am not an executive member of the PNCR. I even relinquished my membership of the party since 2007, although my preference of party is the PNCR. Nandalall knows this, but resorts to the bogey of the PNCR in an effort to give legitimacy to his diatribe. He also attributed to me the status of the PNCR`s representative on GECOM. This is a clear case of the country`s Attorney General turning the Constitution on its head in his attempt to prejudice the listeners. Suffice to say that that is the manner in which the PPP treats its commissioners; and they see themselves, thus their treatment of GECOM as a political thorough-fare, rather than an impartial constitutional body, a la the appointment of staff, and almost all things GECOM.

Misinformation

Nandlall in his attempt to win-over the innocent and neutral segment of the public, purported that I have no evidence to support my contentions. The fact of the matter is that the Voter`s List is rightfully described as “bloated” because the names of Guyanese, who reside and died overseas having been registered between 2008 and the present time, have been retained on the list. This is an irrefutable fact. That number is in the thousands.

To make things worse, the Chief Immigration Officer verified that the names extracted from the list of names of the persons who cast votes, which was sent for verification, consisted, to the extent of approximately 75%, of names of persons who were out of the country on elections` day.

These facts have been verified and are incontrovertible, yet Nandlall attempted to place wool over the eyes of the Guyanese by contending that there is no evidence to back up what I say. Even worse, is that Nandlall is the one who took custody of the myriad of unverified documents consisting of the names of those who were, allegedly, voted for, with the expressed intention of having them checked to prove that the listed persons were in the country on election day. Two years have elapsed and Nandlall has not provided the report on the checks which were to be done. And, does not allude to his act of not having the information which was provided to him, verified to be true or false.

The existence of evidence that votes were cast for persons who were out of the country, clearly shows that GECOM`s system, as robust as it might be, is not fool-proof and that Nandlall`s insistence, that GECOM`s systems are perfect and would have curbed irregularities, is baseless.

Nandlall further relies on the CARICOM Observer report to contend that there was no evidence of such occurrences. The fact be told: The Chairperson of the Elections Commission on May 20, 2020 wrote to the Commissioner of Police requesting the verification of the presence or absence of named persons in the country on elections day. On May 27, 2020 the Commissioner responded verifying that of the 307 names submitted for verification 172 were out of the country and 35 were in the country. This is but one sample. The truth be told: the Chairperson of GECOM had not brought to the attention of the CARICOM Observer Mission the existence of the aforementioned information, although they were in the country at the time of its receipt.

Nandlall further sought to hoodwink the public went he contended that at the close of poll the ‘ballots are checked against the names of those who voted to, validate the number of votes cast.’ Such a check is not possible and would, in any case, be a breach of confidentiality. Actually, the number of names ticked off is check against the number of ballots, to validate the latter number.

The most excessive of Nandlall`s misrepresentations were his contention that there was a claim that 15,000 fraudulent votes were cast. There was never such a claim. The Chief Elections Officer, in view of the misplaced documents which were necessary for the verification of the number of votes cast on the East Coast of Demerara, sought to invalidate those votes and not count them. I, however, contended that that would have been tantamount to the disenfranchisement of voters, who would have voted, albeit the true number of them could not be verified, during the recount. My proposition was that those ballots be put aside and a by-election held to ensure that no one was disenfranchised, and all of the votes validated, was not heeded. In effect, some votes which could not be validated in the recount process were counted and may have been a determining factor in the eventual overall result.

Illogicalities

It is patently illogical to conclude that a system is perfect when there is irrefutable evidence, as provided above, to show that it would have been breached. Not to mention, the previous contention, by Jagdeo, that the list should be cleaned up.

The mere contention that the list was previously used is no basis upon which to justify its usability, suffice to note that it was not the same list. Between 2008 and 2020 there would have been various iterations of the list based on the continuous registration process (inclusion, deletions and changes to particulars). It should also be noted that there was a 2018 consensus at GECOM, and the Parliament for a new list to be created through house-to-house registration. The PPP/C reneged on this commitment, and the Ruling of the Chief Justice deemed the intent of the exercise illegal, hence its cancellation.

Taking all of the information provide above, Nandlall seems to be malicious, ill-informed or a stranger to the truth in relation to the conduct of elections in Guyana. He sought to use the PNCR bogey to veil his misinformation and downright untruths. Even, the propositions related to bio-metrics he sought to knock down, although it was previously called for by Jagdeo; is widely used globally; and provides a superior and fool-proof means of recognition in comparison to facial recognition, which is presently used. Not to mention his idiocy about issues like power failure. The proposed system can be outfitted with battery packs as the original source of power or as an alternate source.

It behooved me to respond to Nandlall`s heresy for the said reason that he purported to respond to me, except that he is guilty of what he accused me of and must be exposed.

Yours truly,

Vincent Alexander

(Nandlall’s insistence that GECOM’s systems are perfect is baseless)

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• Anil Nandlall, Commissioner Rohee`, GECOM, PNCR`s representative, PPP

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