A falling out over a motion for house-to-house registration yesterday resulted in the PPP/C-nominated members of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) walking out of a meeting dedicated to solidifying a timeframe and budget for the holding of general elections and their government-nominated counterparts have since claimed that it was declared passed.
Government-nominated Commissioner Charles Corbin told reporters that the walkout of PPP/C-nominated commissioners Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn occurred while the vote on the six-month process was being recorded but this is being strongly disputed. “That is inaccurate. At no time in our presence was there a vote,” a peeved Gunraj told Stabroek News when subsequently contacted.
Gunraj explained that the government-nominated Commissioners were attempting to propose a motion to discuss house-to-house registration as part of preparing for elections. “We contended that that could not be preparation for elections in the shortest possible time and that we will have no part in any such discussion. When we left, there was no vote being taken,” he said.
Echoing earlier statements made by Shadick, he accused the government-nominated commissioners of distorting the facts.
Yesterday’s meeting of the six commissioners and Chairman, retired judge James Patterson, is the second for this week. On Tuesday, the PPP/C-nominated Commis-sioners walked out of the statutory meeting after saying that poll preparations were not on the agenda.
Following the successful December 21st, 2018 vote on a motion of no-confidence against government in the National Assembly, elections are constitutionally due by March 21st. For this date to be extended, the support of the opposition PPP/C would be required in the National Assembly.
It was after meeting with their fellow commissioners for two and a half hours that the PPP/C-nominated commissioners walked out and declared that nothing was achieved.
Speaking to reporters outside the Kingston office, Corbin said that the PPP/C-nominated Com-missioners abstained from the process when they got up and left even while the voting was being done and that with the passage of the motion, house-to-house registration will begin on May 1st, one day after the current voters’ list expires, and end on October 31st.
Government is adamant that house-to-house registration is integral to the cleansing of the list, which has on it the names of 633,156 persons, while the opposition is in favour of a claims and objections period.
Corbin explained that a motion to proceed to the elections with a credible list based on house-to-house verification was moved, seconded and proceeded to a vote.
According to him, during the process of the vote, he and his two fellow government-nominated commissioners voted in favour of the motion and Shadick then said that she would not vote on any question. “…That commenced the process of a walkout after the commissioners voted…,” Corbin said.
Asked what happened to the vote, Corbin said based on Shadick’s response, the three PPP/C-nominated commissioners did not intend to participate in any vote. “Basically they abstained from voting on the question so basically in this particular instance the chair didn’t even have to intervene because there were three votes and there was an abstention. The vote was to proceed to elections with a list that is the basis of a house-to-house registration. That is the point when they left the meeting,” he said.
Given the passage of the motion, he said the Chairman will now have to communicate what has occurred to President David Granger. He, however, did not say how soon this is likely to be done.
Challenged on the PPP’s commissioners’ non-participation in the voting process, Corbin insisted that they did participate but opted to remove themselves, which can be equated to abstention.
Government-nominated Commissioner Desmond Trotman added that when the trio left, “three persons had already voted… when they were leaving without voting, it meant they had abstained from the vote. So we had a motion, which to my mind has been carried by three to nil.”
Asked whether one has to definitively say they are abstaining, Trotman responded in the negative. “You don’t have to say you are abstaining. You could remain silent and silence is construed as an abstention,” he said. When challenged on whether it was stated that they would not be participating or that they were not voting, Corbin indicated that Shadick said, “I will not be voting on this question.”
‘Farce’
Benn described yesterday’s meeting as a “special meeting” which descended into a “farce.”
He said the perusal of a document prepared by Shadick, which indicates that April 30th is the shortest possible time for polls, was deliberately overshadowed by a proposal made by government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander who suggested that elections could not be held unless GECOM pays attention to holding them after having house-to-house registration.
He said that a discussion was started on Alexander’s proposal, “completely ignoring that a motion was on the floor which was being considered and was not voted on and the Chairman instantly seized upon that which was proffered by Alexander.”
Benn told reporters that the other government-nominated commissioners “suddenly said that they were in support of Alexander’s motion, ignoring the motion which was on the floor, and wanted us to vote and go ahead on the question of holding elections only after house-to-house registration is done, which would take perhaps six months, nine months or until February next year, depending on which one of Alexander’s suggestions we would want to adopt.”
Benn said that he and the other two PPP/C-nominated commissioners have decided that they would not “sit there and be in the same position as the chairman ….commissioners Alexander, Trotman and Corbin. We will not sit there, violate the constitution and be open to charges and action in the court…”
Shadick told reporters that during the meeting Corbin suggested that they cost the submissions she had made in detail. “I am saying cost it. If you use to spend two billion and you now have to spend five, then the president should be so informed because the president asked for that. So cost it and if you want to put alongside it, what you would have normally spent, put that because it doesn’t really matter. The thing is what we have in this country now is the 21st of March is coming and people have to go back to Parliament before anything else can happen after that and the way this is going on this is not happening,” she said.
Shadick reminded that Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had said quite clearly that he is prepared to go back to Parliament to ask for an extension for the holding of polls up to April 30th because that is the end of the validity of the current voters’ list.
“So come the 1st of May, there is no list of electors and what they are saying now is the only list that we will have is one that will come after house-to-house registration. For me as a commissioner to sit there and to agree to any plan that takes us beyond the 30th of April, would be me suborning the Constitution and that is not something I will do,” she added.
Shadick, clearly frustrated, said almost an hour was spent by the commissioners arguing whether GECOM should pay for the legal representation for the Chairman and the three government-nominated Commissioners, who were earlier this week criminally charged with violating Guyana’s Constitution. She said that the vote was taken and the four voted in favour of the GECOM absorbing those legal fees.
“So all of this nonsense that is going on here is like hijacking this Constitution that we have and that GECOM must pay to represent the people who hijacking it and this is absolute nonsense. There is no way that we are going to sit there and knowingly breach the Constitution of our land,” she said.
She said that if Jagdeo is given a proposal that “he can live with,” then both sides can return to Parliament.
“We are going to move beyond Phagwah Day into uncharted territory…,” she said before reminding that the president wants a plan for elections in the shortest possible time and the financial requirement. “They not prepared to go shortest possible time. The shortest possible time has to end on 30th of April. There is no other reality and that is very clear. It is clear to us and it should be very clear to the people of Guyana,” she insisted.
She said claims and objections and continuous registration takes no less than 90 days. “You see those things should have started since December and January. They never started… If the law says that the list has a validity of six months, then you have to move to refresh that list. Nothing was done. When I asked very early 22nd or 23rd of January, the CEO said that is overtaken by time…,” she said.
She said that she doesn’t know what else can be done in the present circumstances. “I don’t know what else we can do, nobody is being reasonable,” she said before adding that “nobody seems to understand or appreciate the consequences after the March 21st.”
