Dear Editor,
Please permit me to respond to a specific comment made by Mr Sherwood Lowe, in a letter titled ‘The PNCR presidential candidate contenders must speak to the electorate in prose not poetry,’ which was published in the Stabroek News of Friday, October 22, 2010.
According to the letter, Mr Lowe contends that “for the PNCR it is always an uphill battle to convince an electorate that does not believe… Gecom can deliver a fair election.” The absurdity of this statement compels Gecom to debunk it, lest stakeholders misconstrue through speculative thinking, that we are incapable of administering elections in a free, fair and transparent manner.
At the outset we must emphasize that the successful conduct of the 2006 general and regional elections, which was extolled by international and local observers, is testimony to the level of efficiency that Gecom had achieved. Considering the previous tumultuous political situations in Guyana, especially during election times, we regard this accomplishment as having emerged from and being the natural sequel to our unwavering commitment to carry out our constitutional mandates in compliance with the relevant laws. With the four years that have since elapsed, we have improved on that competency and corrected the few relatively insignificant lapses which might have surfaced during the 2006 elections.
May I point out, en passant, that Mr Robert Corbin, Leader of the PNCR and of the opposition, and the PNCR’s presidential candidate for the 2006 general and regional elections accepted the results of these elections and conceded defeat at the polls.
It is imperative that we note that the current commission has never lost sight of the crucial need to deliver elections that meet the satisfaction of all stakeholders. In so doing we have, as a matter of deliberate commission policy, observed the relevant laws and the principles associated with international best practice for the conduct of elections. I have no doubt that were Gecom to be subjected to the rigorous checks needed for ISO certification, it would emerge with flying colours.
We document hereunder some of the more crucial actions taken by Gecom in its resolve to honour the mandatory responsibilities:-
● We have continually kept political parties and other key stakeholders abreast of all registration and election undertakings via interactive sessions and by way of appropriate correspondence.
● The commission introduced a most comprehensive and all-encompassing house-to-house registration exercise which captured every single eligible Guyanese and allowed Gecom to produce a patent National Register of Registrants.
● The registration (both house-to-house and continuous) and election processes are fully monitored by scrutineers appointed by the governing political party and the joint opposition political parties in Parliament.
● We introduced continuous registration as a facility to allow for the frequent updating of the National Register of Registrants. This would allow us to respond positively to any call for snap elections.
● We introduced reliable mechanisms to thoroughly verify the accuracy of information provided by all applicants for registration before the application is further processed and accepted. This involves inter alia visiting the given residential address of the applicant.
● We introduced fingerprint cross matching to eliminate multiple registrations.
● Gecom’s Information Techno-logy Division has been fully upgraded to guarantee the accuracy of the National Register of Registrants and official lists of electors/register of voters to be produced therefrom.
● Our comprehensive civic and voter education strategy has always targeted all sections of the electorate especially through the grass roots level communication approach. This involves the implementation of highly publicised voter education campaigns aimed at informing electors about their rights and responsibilities as voters, the step-by-step voting process, the locations of the respective polling stations, and to
dissuade them from becoming involved in wilful electoral skulduggery.
In addition to the bulleted measures, the concomitant claims and objections exercises associated with registration and elections guarantees the opportunity for all concerned to have a say in the integrity of the relevant final Official List of Electors (OLE)/register of voters.
Further, in preparation for the 2006 elections, we had put together and shared with the contesting political parties a menu of safeguards aimed at preventing dissatisfaction on election day. Needless to say this was accepted unanimously by the parties. Those safeguards have been improved upon, and a superlative menu of measures is in place today.
In view of the foregoing, it is practically impossible to comprehend how anyone could assume/believe/conclude that Gecom cannot deliver free and fair elections, and that the electorate needs to be convinced that it can.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Persaud
Public Relations Officer
Gecom
