Dear Editor,
The parties, and the country, have emerged from a very closely contested general election. However pleased most may be with the results, they are bound to admit to the interminably anxious experience of waiting for some five days and nights, a period which even those ultimately satisfied deemed as representative of less than an adequate performance by Gecom.
The observer missions all noted this lapse, while at the same time commending the outcome as ‘free and fair.’
There has, however, since been a deafening silence on the contents of the various reports for upgrading Gecom’s performance – an unsurprising circumstance that merely replicates the attitude of the latter and related stakeholders for at least two previous elections.
Perhaps the most identifiable of the missions, the Carter Center, amongst its recommendations on the 2006 elections was a priority to the effect that the membership of Gecom needed to be substantively reconfigured – from party representation to a transparently professional composition (as obtains in some Caribbean territories and in other Commonwealth countries). It is not surprising that this particular recommendation has been ignored. It is just that there is an established pattern for the concerned stakeholders not to discuss these observer mission reports. If perchance they ever did, certainly no indication has ever been published on their reactions thereto, much more towards the implementation of any change.
Change is definitely required at this juncture. The new dispensation should take a productive approach and demand timely responses from the commission.
The administration should commit a task force of say, the Ministries of Governance, Legal Affairs, Communities and Citizenship, to review all the relevant reports in preparation for sustained dialogue with the Commission in order to agree, and if necessary legislate, relevant amendments which will facilitate the changes the international community has urged, particularly with the prospect of local government elections being aired.
Incidentally, with respect to local government, it is by now well known that article 78A of the constitution requires Parliament to establish a Local Government Commission “to deal with as it seems fit, all matters related to the regulation and staffing of local government organs and with dispute resolution within and between local government organs.”
This provision has never been honoured by previous administrations of any kind.
There is now some consensus that ‘there is time for change.’
Yours faithfully,
E B John
