The Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) is gearing up to commence its elections monitoring programme and hopes that this time around the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) will provide a copy of the official list of electors for vetting.
“The last time they did not give us and it turns out that was where most of the problems were. Hopefully, this time is different,” Chairman of the EAB Father Malcolm told Stabroek News.
Rodrigues said the elections watchdog body wants the list as soon as is possible so as to be able to undertake checks and identify discrepancies early, so that they can be rectified.
He explained that the office was equipped with special computer programmes to cross-check duplications and will be using these again. “We would check the list, which we want to do again and with a special programme, we are able to see duplicates of ID cards, names and so on,” he said.
He explained that after the random selection of at least 1,000 persons from across the country, EAB volunteers will visit those areas, however remote, to verify the existence of the persons listed.
The May 11th elections will not see an official of the EAB at every polling station but the organisation hopes that it can partner with other watchdog bodies who will be here to scrutinise the process.
“I don’t think we will be able to do it this year. We know overseas groups are coming and maybe if we team with them and spread out the workload it can work out and we will be able to maximise monitoring but we will be at main stations,” he said.
It is unclear how much funding the agency will receive this year for its programme but funding from elections partners will be made in coming weeks, according to Rodrigues.
The Council of Manage-ment of the EAB this week announced that it was in the process of finalising arrangements for the commencement of its elections monitoring exercise. This includes the setting up of the administration and equipping its office. However, a location for the office has not yet been determined.
Rodrigues said as soon as the EAB was in a position to fully commence operations, more details of the programme will be announced. The organisation has a commendable track record going back to the 1992 elections, and of all the observers has unparalleled experience of the elections processes, parties and conditions here.
