Contending that the ongoing house-to-house registration exercise is “unlawful,” the Private Sector Commission (PSC) has called for the process to be immediately suspended.
“We have sought legal advice on this matter and it is our understanding that you have not been legally directed by the [Guyana Elections Commission] to proceed as you are doing and that to conduct house-to-house registration is unlawful,” Chairman of the PSC Gerry Gouveia wrote in a letter to Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield yesterday.
“The Private Sector Commission calls upon GECOM to immediately suspend the house-to-house registration exercise until a Chairperson of GECOM has been named and can inclusively and respectfully decide the best way forward,” Gouveia said in the letter which was also made available to the news media.
GECOM on Friday officially announced that house-to-house registration would begin on Saturday and the exercise is now underway with thousands of enumerators deployed on the streets from that day. The exercise has divided the nation with the PNCR and the WPA, both members of the APNU faction of the governing coalition, welcoming the exercise while the opposition PPP has deemed it unlawful and newcomer ANUG labelling it illegal. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has further directed his party’s supporters to not participate and says the PPP will today seek an injunction to stop the exercise.
In the letter to Lowenfield, Gouveia said that the PSC has also noted that GECOM’s Internal Counsel has advised that GECOM would be in contempt of the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to carry out any instruction in this regard from former Chairman, James Patterson, whose appointment by the President has been ruled to be flawed.
Stabroek News had previously reported that GECOM’s in-house lawyer, Excellence Dazzell, had submitted an opinion to Lowenfield that argued that the commission is bound by the CCJ judgment, which reiterated that the December 21st, 2018 motion of no-confidence against the government was properly passed by the National Assembly and that the clear provisions of Article 106 of the Constitution which includes the holding of elections, immediately became engaged.
“You must also be aware that you are also taking this approach when there is a clear constitutional requirement to hold elections within three months of the validation of the no-confidence motion. The effect of GECOM’s action on electoral democracy and broader democratic governance cannot be lost on you,” Gouveia wrote.
He recalled that the PSC has been an accredited elections observer since 2001 and has participated in consultations involving civil society, political parties and the international community in 2008 to undertake house-to-house registration for the establishment of the current National Register of Registrants Database (NRRD). According to Gouveia, the decision to conduct house-to-house registration was inclusive and respectful of all national actors and the subsequent exercise involved full involvement of political parties’ scrutineers in house-to-house visits.
Total absence
Gouveia said that in this instance, there has been a total absence of consultation with the political parties’ scrutineers and, therefore, political parties scrutiny of the registration exercise, which is essential to establishing a credible NRRD.
“We cannot have a credible database if these elements are completely absent from the current house-to-house exercise you are embarking on,” he said.
“GECOM’s present conduct is a complete break from its history of inclusivity and respectful engagement with all the relevant stakeholders. GECOM is failing to meet its duty to communicate, provide facts and justify its actions to the public. You must be aware that undertaking house-to-house registration without proper consultation and ventilation of the alternative approaches with stakeholders undermines your credibility and trustworthiness as an elections agency and your credibility and trustworthiness as Chief Election Officer,” Gouveia charged.
“Quite apart from the fact that…you are proceeding to conduct this registration unilaterally, unlawfully and in contempt of the fact that GECOM is without a Chairman and is not meeting as a Commission, we know that GECOM has not conducted a field test of the existing NRRD,” Gouveia said.
“GECOM is not, therefore, in a position to state with credibility that some 200,000 entries on the NRRD do not belong there. This advice to the President begs the question not only of why would anyone tell the President that, but also why would a register under your custody since the 2015 elections, one that gave us a credible election in 2015 and has gone through cycles of continuous registration, have suddenly become so corrupted,” he wrote.
The PSC chairman recalled Lowenfield’s statement in 2015 in response to a query about the size of the voters’ list – which was 570,787 at the time – that GECOM had opened more registration centres and was more efficient at registering persons, many of whom were also able to get birth certificates and requisite documents to register. According to Gouveia, GECOM, at that time, admitted to a lag in removing deceased persons and those who migrated permanently but they were assured that the procedures for voting made it practically impossible for anyone to double vote or vote as an imposter.
“You confirmed that GECOM staff and parties’ scrutineers are given folios at every polling station with particulars of voters registered at that station, including photographs. Thus, while it was ideal to keep the register scrubbed, you were not concerned then that the size of the list would undermine a free and fair election,” Gouveia said.
He added that the 2015 election with a voters’ list of 570,787 electors and 412,012 valid votes cast resulted in credible national and regional elections. In 2018, the voters list of 573,923 that was generated from the continuously updated NRRD also resulted in a credible local government election, he said.
“You nor anyone else expressed concerns about a bloated list and credibility of an election on the basis of the list size relative to our population as recorded in the 2012 national census,” Gouveia wrote.
Extreme of options
“We have had two voters’ list above 500,000 that gave us two credible elections. Now you are attempting to reason that a list of similar size cannot give us a credible election and that the only remedy is the most extreme of options – house-to-house registration to create a brand new NRRD. You have ignored the fact that the existing NRRD has been continuously maintained and has not expired. You have, instead, inexplicably, discounted the reasonable statutory option of Claims and Objections for an election to bring the register up to date for constitutionally due elections,” Gouveia charged.
He also highlighted the policy decision taken for cycles of continuous registration, which include claims and objections periods would be undertaken to update and maintain the database so that it would be in a condition to produce a voters’ list whenever necessary. He said that evidence will show that GECOM took the policy decision for cycles of registration specifically because it wanted to be in a position to hold elections at any time. According to the PSC chairman, GECOM has been continuously refreshing the NRRD, which does not expire and in 2018, the tenth continuous registration and claims and objections period prior to the local government elections that year, was done.
“You have not professionally justified this attempt at this extreme and dangerous action you have taken. The exclusive and non-transparent way you are going about it will not produce a credible NRRD. In fact, experience shows that such an exercise would take far more than the three months you have scheduled to properly include registrants,” Gouveia said.
He recalled that in 2008, the process took one year, with six months of registration followed by finger print crosschecks etc, before ID cards could be issued. He also contended that the school holidays and the wet season will present challenges.
“Undertaking a complete revamp of the NRRD in such a relatively short span of time before an election will more than likely disenfranchise voters, particularly domestic migrant workers, persons abroad for medical, school and other reasons. Evidence and experience indicate that you are not going to be able to create a credible voters’ list within a year by scrapping the existing NRRD and creating a new one,” Gouveia declared.
Observing that the laws were amended in 2005 to introduce a continuous cyclical registration process using the database created in the 2001 house-to-house registration as the base, Gouveia said house-to-house registration is the very antithesis of continuous registration.
“They cannot coexist. To break the cycle and discard the database is therefore clearly illegal. Names can only be removed from the National Register in accordance with the Act, for example by death, insanity etc,” he said. The businessman said that in 2008 when it was decided to conduct another house-to-house registration after the 2005 Amendment, the law was amended in 2007 to permit that exercise. “It could not have been lawfully done without that amendment,” he argued.
Against that backdrop, Gouveia said that the PSC calls upon GECOM to immediately suspend the house-to-house registration exercise until a Chairperson of GECOM has been named and can inclusively and respectfully decide the best way forward.
“It is the responsibility of GECOM and the government to canvass the positions of all the political parties for a decision that is in the best interest of the country. The ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice must be respected,” he said.
He called on Lowenfield to discharge his duty “professionally and objectively and provide information to the public to correct misinformation about the voters list and voting process.”
Guyana’s commitment to democratic principles, respect for the rule of law and free and fair elections must rest on a truly independent electoral agency, Gouveia wrote. “GECOM’s conduct at this moment in our history will be consequentially long into our future. Every employee of GECOM must withstand public scrutiny regarding their impartiality. We trust you understand that this is being closely monitored in the public interest,” he ended.
