Another statutory meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) ended yesterday without a decision on the likely date of General and Regional elections.
Following a three-hour meeting Opposition-nominated commissioners told reporters that some progress had been made while the Government-nominated commissioners maintained that house-to- house registration must be held.
“We have not dealt with the question of a specific action in terms of when GECOM could propose when elections can be held: They still have not done with that. On the table for all intents and purposes is the question of CLO (claims and objections) versus house-to-house registration,” Government-nominated commissioner, Vincent Alexander told media operatives following the meeting.
Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield announced on Friday that the secretariat would need 148 days to run off an elections. He added that with the life of the current voters list coming to an end on April 30 the 148 includes 28 days for a process of claims and objections. This timeline rules out the March 19 deadline set by the December 21, 2018 no confidence vote. House to house registration has been projected to last nine months.
The entire commission appears to have agreed on at least one course of action which is to have Lowenfield ask the Ministry of Finance whether the $3 billion allocated for house-to-house registration this year can be used to finance the holding of general elections.
Alexander and Charles Corbin explained that while they believe the funds cannot be used for any purpose other than the one for which is was allocated they would like to have the view of “persons who are not internally interested to give clarity.”
“The appropriation specifies what the money was budgeted for,” Alexander stressed while Corbin noted that the commission “needs money to do anything for elections while the appropriation for 2019 has nothing for elections.”
“Our position is that no funds that were allocated for house to house can be reallocated. There has to be a new appropriation. We have been attempting to get funds for house to house since 2012, that is when the debate started. We can’t now have it allocated, use it up and now we can’t cleanse this list,” Corbin said.
He reminded that two of the 23 reasons in a petition challenging the 2015 elections “are anchored in the quality of the list” and argued that as an institution they must fix any deficiency they know exists.
“All the stakeholders have recognised and called for the sanitisation of the list. The only difference across the stakeholders is what method is to be used. We, as a commission, must be concerned that whatever decision is [made] it is properly legislated so that we don’t end up where the parties in parliament come to an agreement and then you proceed to act and sometime somebody raises an issue, you go to the court and it is vitiated as has happened in the past,” Corbin added.
Asked if a process of claims and objections would be enough to ‘cleanse’ the list, the commissioners said no.
“Once we are talking sanitizing we are talking house to house. Claims and Objections is for updating and updating is not enough,” Alexander stressed while Corbin maintained that legislatively only house to house can be used to properly sanitize the list.
Meanwhile, the three government-appointed commissioners noted that they did not attend a meeting with the Carter Center on Monday because they did not receive sufficient notice nor were they informed that the Center had received government approval to operate a fact-finding mission.
According to Alexander following the last GECOM meeting the Commission was expected to have sought clarification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about whether “the government was disposed to its engagement with the Carter Center”.
“My position is that this is an external body. It’s not even a government. It’s a private NGO and private NGOs just can’t turn up and talk to anybody when they feel like. This country has “a sovereign” and it is the sovereign who decides how you deal with external forces,” he stressed adding that there is a precedent of Guyana’s government rejecting intervention from external forces.
He specifically highlighted the 2014 incident when the then Government of Guyana contested the implementation of the $300 million project administered by USAID and revoked the work permit of Canadian Glen Bradbury, who was heading the project. The project was eventually given the go-ahead after talks between local and US officials.
“It is only in the context of government being disposed that GECOM gets involved,” Alexander reminded noting that international law directs that foreign observer missions operate only on the invitation of governments.
Despite these objections two representatives of the Center met with GECOM chair Justice (rtd) James Patterson, Lowenfield and the PPP/C-nominated commissioners on Friday.
Alexander said that the chairman has apologized for the miscommunication.
“Apparently, something went awry and the meeting was arranged and there was no communication [with us] whatsoever until yesterday [Monday] morning. The Chairman has apologised and taken responsibility for not having communicated with us before,” he said.
