The Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) reiterated yesterday that it has no legal responsibility to get involved in the apportioning of payments for scrutineers among the opposition parliamentary political parties, and said it has acted at all times within its mandate in the matter.
GECOM in a press release stressed that it has complied with the legal and administrative arrangements associated with the appointment and payment of scrutineers. The Alliance For Change and GAP/ROAR had taken the Commission to court for not apportioning funds for scrutineers to them. The two parties insisted that GECOM had a role to play in this.
The commission noted that Section 8 (1) of the Elections Laws (Amendment) Act. No. 15 of 2000 provides for the appointment by each party of one Chief Scrutineer for the whole of Guyana, an Assistant Chief Scrutineer for each Registration District or part thereof, and one scrutineer for each Registration Division and any Sub-Division thereof.
In view of this legal provision, the release stated, GECOM informed representatives of all political parties about the house-to-house registration process and the importance of the participation of scrutineers nominated by the political parties throughout the exercise, and also invited all political parties to a meeting at the Conference Hall of the commission’s secretariat on August 9, 2007. It noted that only the Chief Scrutineers of the PNCR-1G and the PPP/C submitted their respective lists of the names of persons appointed.
GECOM noted that in an earlier release dated October 19, 2007 the body had informed that Section 8 of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act No. 15 of 2000 specifically deals with the matter of appointment of scrutineers.
There is nothing in this Act that confers upon GECOM any legal or other responsibility regarding the appointment of scrutineers and this was made known explicitly to the Alliance For Change (AFC) via correspondence dated February 10, 2007, by Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo, the commission said.
At the time when GECOM issued the release in October, the Commission said it had already advised political parties from within the combined opposition in parliament that the appointment and payment of scrutineers were matters which should be dealt with by the latter body or that the concerned parties should lobby for suitable legislative amendment by parliament. GECOM pointed out that the hours worked by scrutineers are totted up and the data forwarded to the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry then makes lump-sum payments to the two Chief Scrutineers who in turn pay their respective scrutineers.
And yesterday GECOM further stated that it has no knowledge of any appropriated sum of $100 million for the payment of scrutineers for house-to-house registration. The commission also said it did not discuss the matter of splitting any appropriated sum of $100 million equally between the PPP/C and the PNCR-1G, nor did it take any decision in this regard at its statutory meeting of September 25, 2007, or any other meeting.
“GECOM could not have done so simply because the commission until now has no knowledge of any appropriated sum of $100 million for the payment of scrutineers for house-to-house registration.”
Choice
Justice Jainarayan Singh Jr last month ordered GECOM to allocate monies equitably to the combined parliamentary opposition parties to offset their respective expenses for the scrutineering activities in the upcoming house-to-house registration exercise.
Since no mention was made of the other parliamentary opposition parties – the AFC and Guyana Action Party/Rise Organise and Rebuild (GAP/ROAR) – a court action was filed on their behalf by parliamentarians David Patterson of the AFC and Everall Franklin of GAP/ROAR.
The application was filed on the grounds that the PNCR does not constitute the combined parliamentary opposition but was merely one constituent of it. Franklin and Patterson said GECOM’s decision gave rise to concerns that the AFC and GAP/ROAR may be excluded from procuring finances for its scrutineers.
Justice Singh’s decision came after the respondents – GECOM; the PPP/C and the PNCR were scheduled to appear before the court but failed to do so. Their absence resulted in the judge granting the order as requested in the application by Franklin and Patterson.
GECOM yesterday maintained that its failure to comply with the High Court order must not be seen as a matter of choice. According to the release, “The commission simply does not get, nor does it have funds, appropriated or otherwise, for the payment of scrutineers. It clearly follows that the commission is powerless to carry out the High Court order.”
GECOM said it had to choose between complying with the High Court order or be faced with contempt of court proceedings. Since it has no funds to facilitate compliance with the High Court order, the commission then had to choose between facing contempt of court proceedings or file an appeal and request a stay in the execution of the High Court order and the latter was the obvious choice, GECOM contended.
It is unfortunate, GECOM said, that the commission’s stance on the matter of apportioning non-available funds to the AFC to pay scrutineers could be interpreted that the commission is in collusion with the PPP/C and PNCR-1G to keep the AFC out of the registration process.
GECOM said further that no political party or any other stakeholder could reasonably expect or advocate that the commission should involve itself in something in which it has neither the funds nor legal authority, adding that it prefers not to be involved in matters outside its mandate.
Regarding its meeting at the commission’s secretariat on August 9, 2007, GECOM noted that it had dispatched written invitations to 33 political parties which had indicated interest in contesting the 2006 General and Regional Elections.
According to GECOM, participants at that meeting included Davis Patterson – Alliance for Change; Hamilton Green – Good and Green Guyana; Samuel Hamer – Guyana National Congress; Dr Hubert Maloney – Horizon and Star; Ravendra Kishore – Justice For All; Fiesal Feroz Alli – National Front Alliance; C.M. Llewellyn John – People’s Democratic Movement; Oscar Clarke – PNCR; Kistanah Ramanah, PPP/C; and Valeria Lowe – The United Force.
