A key meeting between President David Granger and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) ended yesterday with no election date set and the seven-member commission has been asked to continue with poll preparations even as it seeks agreement on when “credible” elections can be held.
“As far as we are concerned on the government side, we did not receive the sort of guidance that we need to enable me as President to make a proclamation to actually announce a date, but we have kept the door opened and we have asked the Guyana Elections Commission to go back to the drawing board to examine how quickly and how easily they could arrive at an consensual position; merge the various approaches; ensure that the preparations for elections, which have already started, continue and that we could have an agreement as quickly as possible,” Granger said in a video statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency following the more than two hours long meeting with the six GECOM commissioners and its Chairman James Patterson.
Granger said that it appeared to the government side that there are some differences amongst the commissioners. “We did not feel that the differences are irreconcilable, but there needs to be a fresh search for agreement between the competing opinions in the Commission,” he said.
The president said that much attention was focused on the voters’ list, which he pointed out is central to elections. “We feel that elections are a normal part of democracy, but we don’t want any citizen to feel disenfranchised and it is evident from the evidence provided in the meeting this morning (yesterday) that the list is bloated… given the size of our population and much attention is focused on sanitising that list,” he said.
While calling the meeting productive and saying that the government team felt that “we have the basis for moving quickly towards having elections in Guyana,” the president said that the unfortunate thing is that a date has not been identified. “…I am confident that if the Guyana Elections Commission resolved or reconciled the different points of view, which exist in the commission now, Guyanese could look forward to having elections at an early date as possible,” Granger added.
The meeting was seen as crucial as the Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo, who is insisting that general elections be held before April 30th, GECOM previously identified July as the earliest date that it could be ready.
Based on the successful December 21st, 2018 vote on a motion of no-confidence against government, elections are constitutionally due by March 21. For this date to be extended, the support of the opposition PPP/C would be required in the National Assembly.
‘Pressured’
PPP-nominated commissioners Bibi Shadick, Sase Gunraj and Robeson Benn were not impressed with the meeting and said that they felt pressured to conform to the government’s position that house-to-house registration was necessary ahead of the polls.
The bloated list has been the focus of the government-nominated commissioners who continue to argue for house-to-house registration before elections. According to one of those commissioners, Vincent Alexander, credible elections are not likely without a sanitised list. He said GECOM’s technical personnel can contract for such an exercise to be completed by November, 2019.
However, the opposition-nominated commissioners argue that elections can be held with 50 days, before the life of the current list expires at the end of next month.
“The song about house-to-house registration is continually being sung. In my opinion, my being here for two-plus hours didn’t yield anything different from a GECOM meeting,” Shadick told reporters following the meeting at the Ministry of the Presidency. She said that she attempted to submit a written proposal which detailed work plans to facilitate the holding of elections on April 29th but was prevented from doing so by Attorney General Basil Williams.
“I attempted to give this to the president and he seemed willing to accept it, but the Attorney General said we can’t accept something that’s not coming from the full commission,” Shadick told a press conference.
She stressed that throughout the engagement, the three opposition-nominated commissioners felt pressured to conform to government’s position that house-to-house registration was necessary. At least seven ministers of government were present at the meeting and almost all of them spoke of the need for house-to-house registration, the opposition-nominated commissioners related.
“Instead of the expected consultation with GECOM to determine its readiness, the engagement manifested into an obvious attempt to pressure the opposition-nominated commissioners and GECOM into adopting the position being advocated by the government and the APNU, AFC regarding house-to-house registration,” they said in a press statement following the meeting.
Asked about the way forward, the PPP/C-nominated commissioners could provide no clear answer maintaining that the government does not appear to see elections as a priority.
“The meeting degenerated into one of the usual statutory meetings of the Commission, where no urgency is ever given to the holding of elections as is constitutionally mandated, but instead, focus was placed on a house to house registration exercise,” they said in the statement.
‘Engineered crisis’
Meanwhile, they also took aim at claims by Alexander and government-nominated commissioner Charles Corbin that by walking out of the last two GECOM meetings, they are engineering a crisis.
Alexander told reporters yesterday that “If we continue to have people leave the meeting, what in fact they are doing is engineering what they call a crisis, so they are not accepting the body as a mechanism for decision making, which may be (by) majority.”
He noted that President Granger has called on GECOM as a body to advise on the best date for elections, for which a quorum is needed. “The decision has to be made at the level of the commission. If it requires a vote, so be it,” Alexander stressed.
In responding, the opposition-nominated commissioners argued that they have left meetings once it became clear that an election date or the preparation for elections was not going to be discussed. “We reserve the right to walk out of any future meetings where this is not an agenda item,” Shadick maintained.
Meanwhile, Minister of State Joseph Harmon, speaking through the Ministry of the Presidency, also stressed that it is GECOM which must inform the President as to the most suitable date.
“…At the end of the day, it is the decision of the commission upon which the Executive branch will have to rely and, therefore, it is decision of the commission that would inform His Excellency in whatever decisions or pronouncements he would make,” Harmon said.
He added that Granger gave a commitment to GECOM that any issues which require the intervention of a Minister or for the Executive to take any necessary action will be done expeditiously so that the work of the commission can proceed with due haste.
Granger, meanwhile, emphasised that it is for the commission to advise him that it is ready, and he will then proclaim a date.
“Naturally, I would like to proclaim a date that is sanctioned by the National Assembly and the Constitution, but we have not intruded in the work of the commission and we are prepared to support the commission in what it has been doing. It is not for me to overrule the commission. The commission is independent. It is not for anybody to give the commission instructions as to when elections are to be held. Once the commission says it is ready, I will announce a date and I hope that date is as early as possible so the question of the ball being in the President’s court is not a credible position to take. I have to be advised by the commission,” Granger concluded.
