The conduct of the recently held elections for Toshaos and village councils has shown various anomalies and discrepancies, says the Amerindian Peoples Asso-ciation (APA).
The APA Executive Committee held its first statutory meeting for the year from May 7-11 and noted that it had received reports which revealed that there was “no uniformity of a process in the conduct of elections, no uniformity in the eligibility criteria for persons running for office, and the promotion of and campaigning on behalf of a particular candidate or candidates by the Minister of Amerindian Affairs and regional officers, among others.”
The APA’s Executive Committee Meeting is held twice yearly.
In a press statement on Monday the APA said that in Aishalton in Region Nine, persons were told that if they were nominated as Toshao, they could not be nominated for another position on the council, but “the Amerindian Act is not clear about this.”
Meanwhile, in Parishara in the same region, the APA said that “a candidate was deemed ineligible to run because of alleged past wrongdoing yet obvious irregularities have been overlooked again and again during the tenure of various leaders.”
In other cases, the APA continued, “the returning officers conducting elections used their own interpretations of the Act and conducted elections by these interpretations.”
In Wakapoa in Region Two, the returning officer started counting the ballots half an hour before the scheduled time and these ballots were not separated according to nominees as stipulated by the Act.
In Paramakatoi in Region Eight, due to confusion of dates and information by the CDO (Community Develop-ment Officer), under one-third of the eligible voters were able to vote, the APA noted.
According to the association, in some villages in Regions One and Two, Regional officials were openly campaigning for candidates who are also party supporters.
In some communities, irrespective of distance, members were told they had no choice but to vote at one polling place while it is clear that there was the choice of having several polling places in a large village as happened in Santa Rosa.
Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of the APA declared that it “is of the opinion that Toshao and village council elections should be carried out free of interference and manipulation by any political party since elected leaders are there to represent the people who have varying concerns.”
In addition, returning officers and regional officials should not impose their own opinions on the elections process and such a process should have some amount of uniformity, making allowances for geography and other peculiarities, the APA stated.
According to the press statement, the Executive Committee, as part of its meeting, asked for and was granted meetings with a number of missions, agencies, commissions and political parties, among others. These include the Guyana Forestry Commission, the Indigenous Peoples Commission, Roman Catholic Bishop Francis Alleyne, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, Ambassador Lindsay Jones of the European Union, Canadian High Commis-sioner David Devine, British High Commissioner Andrew Ayre, US Ambassador D. Brent Hardt, APNU and the AFC.
Unfortunately, the APA explained, the Committee could not secure meetings with the Minister of Amerindian Affairs since the organization was told that she would be out of the country. The APA was also told that the head of the National Toshaos Council was going to be overseas.
The APA could also not secure a meeting with the GGMC Commissioner. In an effort to meet with the People’s Progressive Party and the Office of Climate Change, the APA was directed to the Office of the President but the President was not available at the time.
However President Ramotar did say that his office would contact the APA to set a meeting at a mutually convenient date and a meeting has since been held between President Ramotar and APA President Sharon Atkinson and Programme Administrator, Jean La Rose.
“The round of meetings was very informative and confirmed that the APA’s representation cuts across different geographical locations in Guyana,” the APA said.
It was also a forum for the APA to highlight its work with indigenous communities and to hear directly from those engaged in discussions on indigenous-related issues to highlight their positions in this regard, the statement concluded.
