The government has accused Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr Steve Surujbally of squandering money, opportunity and goodwill in his “failure to deliver” local government elections on time.
According to a statement issued through GINA last night, in response to comments attributed to Surujbally, government was concerned that “he sought to defend himself against the pointed criticisms by the Office of the President about the delay in holding local government elections in 2009.”
Government alleged that Surujbally sought to distance himself and the commission from the responsibility for the delay by pointing his fingers at the President. However, the available records would bear the President out.
The statement said GECOM was presented with a golden opportunity, the violence free general and regional elections in 2006, with which to put the past ahistory of elections in Guyana in the rubbish heap.
“The ground was further prepared by the decision of the administration and stakeholders to recreate an absolutely new national register of registrants by doing a national house to house registration exercise,” the statement said, adding that the proposed 2009 local government elections presented the first opportunity Surujbally to show his mettle with the new dispensation.
It said the chairman committed to those high expectations but the results have been disappointing.
The government said that while neighbouring states hold elections with economy of time, effort and cost, the GECOM chairman said that the delay in providing funding had prevented the commission from meeting its targets.
GECOM, the government said, insisted on planning activities consecutively instead of simultaneously and the time lost was never regained.
It accused Surujbally of imposing “his will with regard to the rejection of the use of valid documents for registration, an unfortunate decision that discredited and worse, delayed the registration exercise.” It also claimed that he “publicly preferred his choice of a design of the voter ID card.”
It was suggestions of threats to the independence of the commission, the statement said, that prevailed on the authorities leading to the acceptance of repetitive waivers of tender board procedures to facilitate sole sourcing of electoral goods and services. It added that the administration was forced to be critical in getting the chairman to focus on the timeframe and to lead constructively.
Surujbally “led the forces that insisted on the distribution of ID cards before the claims and objection period despite the waste of time and money that would occur when sustained claims and objections led to the necessary reproduction of cards,” the statement said. It added that he even rejected the electoral history of Guyana in which general elections were held at which cards were distributed even on the day of voting.
Despite this the government said the chairman claimed that he was not to blame and it was the administration.
Nevertheless, it stated, he must accept that he was provided with abundant resources and had cultivated heightened expectations about the productivity of his chairmanship