Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Dr Steve Surujbally yesterday said he has accepted that the incorrect declaration that was nearly made by Chief Elections Officer Gocool Boodoo was nothing but a human error until he sees proof to the contrary.
Surujbally also declared that although $527 million was cut from Gecom’s budget, the body stands ready to respond to a call for snap elections.
A source within Gecom had confirmed to Stabroek News that there was going to be an inaccurate declaration that the PPP/C won the November 28, 2011, elections with a majority in Parliament, until an opposition-nominated commissioner objected and pointed out the error.
The PPP/C was eventually declared the winner of the presidency, but with only 32 seats to APNU’s 26 and AFC’s 7, it lost control of the National Assembly.
“What is of such great import is that the system worked… the system worked. The law is that the Chief Elections Officer would bring the calculation, bring his report to the commission and the commission would bless it or not,” Surujbally told Stabroek News yesterday at the Office of the President.
“The moment it was given, the commissioners realised something was wrong and one commissioner, who is an author of the methodology, raised his hand and said could we go through this step by step, and of course I acquiesced immediately and we went through it and realised that the calculation was wrong,” he said.
“As to whether it was a mistake or whatever, I cannot give you anything on that,” said Surujbally. “We know that the system works because we had been able to ensure that something that was incorrect could not go forward,” he added.
Asked whether steps are being taken to ensure that there is no recurrence, Surujbally said that in mathematics, there is a maxim that to err is human. “It didn’t happen in 2006, it didn’t happen in 2001. So one made a human error… that’s what I would put it down to, until someone could prove to me differently at some other time. That has not been done,” he said. “I know it has had a great effect on Mr Boodoo himself, because as you quite rightly say, devastation, disruption, turbulence might have been the sequel [as a result of an incorrect declaration],” he said.
“But as I said, it could not have gone forward without us not having given it a blessing which we did,” he said.
It is believed that an erroneous declaration could have been near irreversible. In the 2006 elections, even though there was recognition within Gecom that an error had been made in terms of the assigning of a Region 10 seat to the PPP/C instead of the AFC, the latter was left to challenge the matter in court as Gecom said that the original declaration of results could not be modified. The challenge was later struck out on procedural grounds.
Speaking with Stabroek News in December, a commission source said the miscalculation was observed upon checks of Boodoo’s submission being perused by commissioners, to whom the calculations were submitted for ratification. The error was shared with Boodoo and every member of the commission “and was accepted unanimously as an error.”
With the seat allocation being subsequently adjusted accordingly, the commissioners gave approval to the CEO to make the official declaration thereafter, with the final announcement of the results of the elections coming on the afternoon of December 1, 2011.
Surujbally also said that Gecom is ready for snap elections should they be announced. “Yes [we are ready].
I have made that statement already, bearing in mind several caveats. As Lance Carberry, I think it was [him] who said, you don’t just wake up and find yourself having a new election. It is very clear that certain legislative and administrative aspects have to be taken into consideration before you could go forward. But yes, in terms of a list, in terms of our continuous registration which we are doing right now, [we are ready],” he noted.
Asked how the $527 million cut from the Gecom allocation would affect the commission in terms of its preparation for possible snap elections, Surujbally said that as the body goes into action only then would it know the impact of the reduction. “My instinctive action is that it will not hurt us deeply,” he said.
The combined APNU and AFC voted to reduce Gecom’s budget, saying that the necessary reforms must be made and if they are, they would support a supplementary appropriation to get the money back.
By making the reduction, observers say, the opposition may have impeded Gecom’s ability to run off snap elections were they to be called by the government. The funding was intended for preparations for overdue local government polls, but the opposition opted to withhold it until agreed legislative reforms are in place.
Meanwhile, asked about the recommendation of the electoral observers about a need for reform of Gecom, Surujbally said that it would not be appropriate for him at this point in time to make a statement about the reform of the commission, for which he is the chairman.
“It is under discussion right now and if any of the discussants would like to hear my opinion on the matter I would surely share my experience with them on the matter,” he explained.
