The Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) yesterday defended the integrity of the preliminary voters’ list, while debunking “ill-advised accusations” being perpetuated through the media by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
During a press briefing held at Cara Lodge yesterday to address concerns about the registration of electors and its readiness, Gecom Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally stated that given the historical context of elections here, Gecom took umbrage at the allegations that the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) is padded. He said that the use of the word suggested that Gecom was consciously adding to the PLE with ulterior motives, which he vehemently denied.
Surujbally also laced into the “deceptions” that are being peddled, such as the amount of dead persons on the list—confirmed to be 12,404—and why Gecom has not removed such entries from the PLE or the National Register of Registrants (NRR). He reiterated that having dead persons still on the PLE was due to negligence by the General Register Office (GRO), which falls under the purview of the Home Affairs Ministry.
Dr Surujbally stated that the information disseminated by the GRO needed to be at a certain standard prior to a registrant being removed from the NRR and the PLE. Surujbally noted that the way the procedures were currently set up for flagging persons or removing them from the lists were being looked at. He denied that he was hiding behind the legislation and instead emphasised that the rules and regulations were there for a purpose. He said that it would be far more disconcerting if persons were being removed from the list and later showed up alive. “We cannot willy-nilly remove persons from the voters’ list,” Surujbally stated.
He highlighted once again that although former President Arthur Chung has been dead since 2008, the GRO has not issued any death certificate to Gecom to have the name flagged as deceased on the PLE.
“I cannot review the Ministry of Home Affairs’ policy. General Register Office comes under that ministry—a ministry or department that, to this day, is not, is not computerised! Can you believe that? But be that as it may, there is efficiency. I am not saying that they are inefficient, there are laws that we have to go by… it should be not incumbent but it should be in our interest to try and tell them look send the damn list,” Surujbally said of the GRO’s part in ensuring information is given to Gecom to have dead persons flagged on the PLE.
He said that looking forward, Gecom could work alongside hospitals and funeral parlours and even use obituaries to confirm deaths and a proposition was made to have all persons over 75 be verified by Gecom independently. He noted that it was only until all of the proposed changes were studied and looked into could draft legislation be proposed for changes to the current system.
‘Near perfect’
Surujbally called the current PLE “near perfect” and he spoke about the work being done by Gecom’s officers to check the various queries being raised by the political parties. He stated specifically that the recent calls by the PPP to investigate the 10 persons listed at Lot 24 Public Road, Prospect, East Bank Demerara were easily addressed. Surujbally said that while the PPP’s scrutineers were unable to locate the family, Gecom officers were dispatched immediately and were able to confirm from a neighbour that the house had collapsed and as a result all 10 persons fled and were currently being housed elsewhere.
In addition, Surujbally also expressed his dissatisfaction that while the numerous allegations raised by the PPP were being investigated, the findings of Gecom’s officers were not being given the same level of media attention and as a result not exposed for the public’s edification.
During the question and answer segment of the briefing, Surujbally confirmed that while the PPP was on a weekly basis criticising the work of Gecom, to his knowledge the government-nominated members of the commission have not condemned any of the processes undertaken by Gecom.
Also addressing information being perpetuated by the PPP about new registrants, Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield showed that a total of 87,295 persons added to the PLE was as a result of persons registered since the 2008 house-to-house registration exercise and during subsequent registration exercises reaching the voting age.
Persons are registered from age 14, although the voting age is 18.
Lowenfield noted that the total registrants from 2008 to the present stands at 614,523. He explained that contrary to the PPP’s assertions that annually the list increased by approximately 11,000 persons, this was not the case.
Lowenfield asserted that for every step, from having person registered on the NRR and then on the PLE, checks and balances follow suit. He explained that in order for registrants to make it on to the PLE, two officers are responsible for the input of data and should data not correlate and satisfy the Secretariat, then the information is sent back into the field for more work to be done on the basis of necessary verifications required.
Commissioner Vincent Alexander stated that millions in taxpayers’ money was being utilised to ensure that the process was comprehensive and inclusive of the involvement of political parties. “They are present at every registration centre… and they are also taken to do every verification. It means that [every] political party in the country is in a position to come up with the same list that Gecom comes up with,” Alexander stated. “They have all of the information. They can match what we have and what they have and on that basis they have can (ask) a legitimate question,” he added, while suggesting that the problem may be with scrutineers not doing their job at the intervals where they would be required to participate.
Surujbally downplayed the call by the PPP to host another cycle of continuous registration and Alexander dubbed the call an “inherent contradiction.” He stated that another cycle would only mean additional names would be added to the list, which the party has already said is padded.
The PPP has also questioned Gecom’s readiness for the holding of local government elections, for which there have been renewed calls this years. The polls were last held in 1994.
Ready
Surujbally told Stabroek News that as it stands Gecom is ready for both general and local government elections. He acknowledged that education for local government elections was something Gecom needed to work on.
He said that should the minister initiate the calling of local government elections, it could happen within six months. He said the commission had its educational platform ready to go but that it was his personal opinion that the public is frustrated when the campaign is delivered but no elections are called as has happened previously.
He also said that for general elections the groundwork currently being done by Gecom was exactly what needed to be done to facilitate preparations. He said that whenever the President approached him to say elections were a go, Gecom would deliver within three months as required under the Constitution.
He added that Gecom was funded accordingly and that there has been no issue with the commission accessing its funds to carry out its work.
Surujbally told Stabroek News that the commission would be looking to cut down on the amount of time taken to deliver election results, although in 2011 it took two and a half days as opposed to the three days in 2006. He noted that while Gecom was able to cut down on the time, it was still condemned for taking too long even though the law requires the results be given within 14 days.
He said that providing effective preliminary results were problematic, especially in relation to far-flung areas. “If it could be done and done correctly we would do it,” he said, before adding that because the Statements of Poll needed to be signed, if the unfinished list was incorrect, the signatures would need to be redone and due to the work the responsible officers may no longer be in the areas in which they were sent.
He also expressed concerns about computer hacking, while noting that regionally it was an issue.