Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Dr Steve Surujbally said yesterday that the Gecom Board will discuss today, among its agenda items, the revelations by Opposition Commissioner Vincent Alexander.
Last week’s seismic disclosure by Alexander set off a maelstrom of reactions from various quarters and stronger calls for the departure of Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo.
Efforts by this newspaper to reach Boodoo yesterday for comment proved futile.
PPP/C nominated Commissioner Dr Keshav ‘Bud’ Mangal declined to comment when contacted by this newspaper.
Boodoo’s contract came to an end recently and there had been calls for it not to be renewed. His tenure has been on shaky ground since a disclosure in early 2012 of the actions of the then undisclosed Alexander in preventing the PPP/C from being declared winner of the November 2011 elections by a majority.
Meanwhile, asked whether the recent revelations by Alexander have not damaged the reputation and credibility of the Gecom and what he had intended to do about it, Surujbally yesterday declined to provide further comment, pending the outcome of the meeting.
Speaking at a PPP/C press conference yesterday, party executive member Zulficar Mustapha said the revelation showed that the system was designed to capture human error, which he insisted best describes the actions of Boodoo in 2011.
“We have listened to the reports given by Alexander. We have had explanations by other commissioners.
Mangal has given an explanation and he said it was a human mistake, an error.
Nobody is taking why this happened into consideration,” Mustapha said.
“This shows the kind of process now that we have. Not so long ago that result that came from the Chief Election Officer could have gone [unnoticed] at the Elections Commission. It is good that we have the kind of scrutiny that we have there,” he said.
Following the disclosures in early 2012, Surujbally had called Boodoo’s actions human error and pointed out that the important thing was the fact that the system worked in picking up those errors.
Asked what A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) did in the wake of the disclosures in November 2011, Leader of the Opposition David Granger said that Alexander was put there by the PNCR and he did not “fall from the sky”.
“At that time we said that Boodoo was not a fit and proper person for the position of Gecom CEO,” Granger told Stabroek News yesterday. “That is still our position,” he stated. He said the party decided to wait until such time that Boodoo’s contract came to an end.
Pointing out that the discrepancies date back to 2001, Granger said, “There were some serious errors in 2001.” He added that there was need for a new CEO.
He pointed to the need for reform and said APNU supports the reform of Gecom as recommended by the Organisation of American States (OAS) following its observance of the November 2011 elections.
Granger said election laws must be complied with and there must be more efficiency in the registration process. He noted that while this was not all the fault of Gecom, some 130,000 registered voters did not vote in the last elections and this speaks to the need for reform.
