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Legal showdown over GECOM’s ballot symbol decision
…defence lawyers say not GECOM’s fault
Attorney General, Anil Nandlall SC
Kaieteur News – The High Court case over the constitutionality of the decision by the Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) to exclude Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) party got underway before Chief Justice (Ag) Navindra Singh on Tuesday.
The Fixed Date Application filed on behalf of Krystal Hadassah Fisher, a national candidate of the Forward Guyana Movement (FMG) contends that GECOM’s exclusion of her party from ballots in Regions Seven, Eight, and Nine violates multiple constitutional rights.
According to Fisher, guarantees including the right to vote, equal suffrage, non-discrimination, and proportional representation. Lawyers representing the party and GECOM presented arguments. Attorney for FGM, Dr. Vivian Williams, argued that GECOM’s exclusionary practice violates both the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act.
According to the lawyer, GECOM has violated the fundamental right of Guyanese to vote. He noted that the procedure adopted by GECOM that omits the Lists of Candidates contesting the National Elections from ballots in certain regions. “What GECOM is doing is creating a situation where some regions of the country, just have basic access, not the premium access that some other regions have that gives them greater access, that allows for greater and more robust participation in the democratic process, and that created unequal citizens,” Dr. Williams said.
While Article 160(2) of Guyana’s Constitution says that Parliament may make provision for geographical constituencies, Dr Williams said such a provision would not truly override the national right to vote which must be consistent with international conventions. “The Constitution contemplates voting without geographical constituencies…the framers were not mad men,” he added.
Appearing on behalf of the state was Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC while Attorney, Arudranauth Gossai represented GECOM. They told the court that GECOM was not at fault. The lawyers noted that it was FGM and Assembly of Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) that did not submit geographical constituency candidates for several regions. “If you chose not to field a candidate, how are you blaming GECOM for that, it was not GECOM that excluded…? It was you who excluded yourself because you did not have a list.”
For his part, by tracing the historical evolution of our electoral system, from First Past The Post, before independence, then Proportional Representation (PR), then in 1980 when the country introduced the regional election process, Gossai explained that between 1999 and 2001 when the Constitution was amended again, they produced the geographic component of the PR system.
Nandlall noted that the argument that a large part of Guyana is being disenfranchised is misplaced. “The lawyer (Williams) made a lot of emotive arguments about deprivation of Amerindian right to vote, and two thirds of the country will not be allowed to vote, nonsense. And I detailed also the various cases that examined our electoral system in recent times.”
“The system ensures that every elector is allowed to exercise their respective franchise. But obviously, if you want to exercise your franchise for a particular party; that party must be participating in the elections and the system is structured in such a way that the geographic constituencies are 10 in number across Guyana,” Nandlall told reporters outside the courtroom. He stressed that contrary to claims of discrimination against the indigenous people; they will be able to cast their ballots. “Those Amerindians will vote. They will just not vote for a party that is not contesting in those regions and it is the party, strangely and ironically that chose not to contest in regions, seven, eight and nine. So it’s the party, in my view, that is discriminating against two thirds of Guyana. It’s not the other way around,” he said.
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