A proposed election law amendment for payment of scrutineers is being met with resistance from the AFC over its failure to ensure allocations to the opposition are made on the basis of their seats in the National Assembly.
According to AFC leader Raphael Trotman, the Election laws (Amendment) Bill 2009 flouts the orders of the courts, which have ruled that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) should allocate monies to the opposition parliamentary parties for scrutineering activities on the basis of the number of seats they hold, rather than through an exclusive grant to the main opposition party.
The Bill, which will amend Section 8 (1) of Election Laws (Amendment) Act of 2000, proposes to insert a new subsection that stipulates that the Opposition Leader, after meaningful consultation with other opposition parties in the National Assembly, shall submit the list of scrutineers of the combined opposition to be remunerated. “We all know what happens with ‘meaningful consultation’ in Guyana,” Trotman said last week, noting that the amendment bill is not in consonance with the rulings of the High Court and the Court of Appeal. “We would expect the Bill to stipulate the parties would get a share based on their representation in the parliament,” he explained.
After GECOM had handed out half of the $100 million approved for scrutineering activities by the National Assembly to the PNCR, the AFC and GAP-ROAR jointly challenged the decision in the courts, arguing that the PNCR did not constitute the combined parliamentary opposition but was merely one constituent of it
Trotman said that in light of its experiences, the AFC is not impressed with the Bill. “Because we fought hard for a judicial declaration, which came, and we expected the Bill to reflect what the courts have ruled,” he explained. Further, he noted that as legitimately elected parliamentary parties, both the AFC and GAP-ROAR have a right to choose to stand on their own or discuss the issues with the leader of the opposition.
He said the party plans to push for amendments, though he was unsure whether either the governing PPP/C or the main opposition PNCR would support it.
The Amendment Bill also seeks to substitute a proviso that states that scrutineers for the governing party and the combined opposition shall be paid remuneration, in accordance with an administrative scheme made by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) after it “is satisfied from supporting evidence that the scrutineer has satisfactorily performed his duties.”