A meeting between commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the Government and Opposition Chief Whips on the electoral body’s preparedness for general and regional elections ended yesterday without any clear indication of how soon the polls could be held.
The meeting ended abruptly and Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira subsequently charged that what is happening at GECOM in terms of its preparations for elections in keeping with constitutional provisions following the passage of the December 21st no-confidence motion against the government “is a massive filibuster.”
“This is a massive filibuster to make sure elections are not held within the 90 days as required by the Constitution, or even any modicum of trying to make it be held within reasonable time,” she added.
Both she and Government Chief Whip Amna Ally yesterday told the media that the meeting ended in a stalemate with GECOM. They both said they will now report back to their respective leaders on the outcome of the meeting, which was held at GECOM’s head office in Kingston. They said the decision on the way forward will be for the leaders to make.
The purpose of the meeting was for GECOM to apprise the chief whips of its state of readiness for the elections, Ally said. There were arguments for and against the holding of the elections and the Chairman, retired judge James Patterson, terminated the meeting, she said, “because it was going nowhere as far as I am concerned.”
The opposition-nominated commissioners, she added, were giving timelines to suit a 90-day period within which elections could be held but both the GECOM Secretariat and the coalition-nominated commissioners do not see it as being feasible within that time span.
“For instance, they have to train people to work for elections. That is going to take a chunk of time because people got to be trained adequately. There is serious problems. Apart from that, permanent staffing has to be filled. There is a question with the ERC [Ethnic Relations Commission]. There are a lot of questions to be answered. Definitely, as far as I can see, from what we have heard, GECOM cannot be ready for the next 50 days,” Ally said.
Asked what she will report to President David Granger on the meeting, Ally said, “I don’t have to tell the President anything about timeframe. I will tell him what transpired at the commission.” It is his prerogative to do what he desires, she said.
Teixeira said it was clear that GECOM has been unable to make a decision on its preparedness for elections within 90 days. “In fact, the Chairman seems to be reluctant to come to any conclusion also,” she said.
‘Unthinkable’
Teixeira said the meeting broke up when she asked the commissioners if they knew that they have to comply with the constitutional 90-day requirement as non-compliance would put Guyana in a constitutional crisis and uncharted waters. She also mentioned the house-to-house registration as proposed by the government-nominated commissioners and Ally, and further argued that “it would be unthinkable” to expect that the opposition would support a prolonged extension when a no-confidence motion was approved. It was at that point, she said, that Patterson, announced that the meeting had ended.
Teixeira said they asked a number of technical questions about GECOM being able to do a range of things simultaneously within 50 days. These included the procurement of materials, ballot papers, and training of electoral staff.
As of yesterday, 54 days of the 90 days within which elections are supposed to be held, remained. “The commission did not answer that, except that [Chief Election Officer] Mr Keith Lowenfield had some concerns about the training,” she said.
A claims and objections period to remove the names of the dead from the voters’ list and to add newly eligible electors, she said, was not raised at the meeting but she noted that Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo has made the point that the Opposition would accommodate a claims and objection period instead of a house-to-house registration, which could take between eight months to a year.
Teixeira recalled that in 2016, GECOM had requested some $3 billion for house-to-house registration but Finance Minister Winston Jordan cut it to $1.9. There was no house-to-house registration for the 2016 or 2018 local government elections, she said, before adding, “Now there is a problem with the 2018 voters’ list which we just came out of.” The current list is valid until the end of April.
The Opposition has noted that GECOM trained about 10,000 people for the last local government elections and used 7,500, according to Teixeira. Therefore, it was possible for GECOM to take from the pool already trained and add an additional 2,000 to be trained, she contended.
“It is clear that Mr Lowenfield, this is my view, that he is under some pressure not to give dates as he is deferring to the commission to instruct the secretariat as to what timelines they are looking at,” she said.
Teixeira said she will present to Jagdeo what transpired at the meeting and “he will have to make a decision on it.” She added that the leadership of the PPP will have to discuss this development.
She appealed to the commission to note that as chief whips, they were delegated by the President and the Leader of the Opposition to meet with them and that the commission by its delinquency, is forcing the President into unconstitutional waters by not presenting them with timelines, Teixeira said.
“I don’t believe 106 (7) anticipated that when it said that the time could be extended, that it meant extended to 2020, election year. I don’t think the Constitution was that crazy,” Teixeira said in reference to the article in the Constitution which provides for an extension of time.
Extending the 90 days deadline, she said, is not for GECOM. “That is a Parliament’s issue, between the Government and the Opposition, to decide. GECOM cannot anticipate what the politicians will do,” she said. She added that GECOM has to put up a timetable and a framework of its operational preparedness to hold elections.
Meanwhile, Opposition-nominated commissioner Bibi Shadick said for the first time, on questioning by Teixeira, that Lowenfield confirmed that his office met on December 22 and prepared a work plan in keeping with the 90 days constitutional requirement. “He has not revealed that plan. He did not have it today. He refused to say on a question by Ms Teixeira how many days that plan required for execution,” she added.
