Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield yesterday reiterated that a claims and objections process can be used to generate a voters’ list for the next general elections even as he faced another call from the Private Sector Commission (PSC) to suspend the ongoing house-to-house registration exercise and prepare for polls within the three-month constitutional timeframe.
Speaking with reporters yesterday at the High Court, Lowenfield reiterated that claims and objections “always has and always will” be a means by which a list of electors can be “refreshed.”
He stressed that “If a claims and objections exercise is to be used, then [the recently expired voters’ list] will form the basis of a preliminary list for claims and objections exercise to be held.”
The CEO also clarified that he never advised President David Granger that the now expired list was “bloated” with approximately 200,000 extra names. President Granger has repeatedly said the list may hold as many as 200,000 incorrect entries.
Though he declined to get into the “numbers game” and stressed that he “would have to conduct an exercise,” Lowenfield noted that 200,000 figure being cited is speculative.
“I will want to do an exercise to determine that amount and that exercise can be done,” he said while declining to use the word “bloated” to describe the list.
Lowenfield has repeatedly maintained that a claims and objections process can generate a list to be used for any upcoming elections.
However, on Monday he informed the PSC that the ongoing continuous registration exercise is in keeping with the previous directions of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
However, the PSC yesterday argued that the judgment and the orders of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) have overtaken GECOM’s directions.
“While we acknowledge that you serve as a public servant and as an employee of the Commission and that you are subject to the policy directives of the Commission for your actions and behaviour, this does not exempt nor excuse you from your obligation to respect and function under the rule of law. We, therefore, reiterate our admonition that GECOM immediately suspend house-to-house registration and prepare itself for the holding of General and Regional Elections within the timeframe prescribed by the [CCJ],” PSC Chairman Gerry Gouveia wrote in a letter sent yesterday to Lowenfield.
“…[A]s CEO of the Commission, you should properly be directing your attention to your statutory duties and responsibilities to obey and comply with the decision and consequential orders of the [CCJ] with regard to the constitutional requirements of Articles 106(6) and 106(7)… The behaviour of GECOM under your explicit directions has ignored the dictum of the Caribbean Court of Justice that GECOM is not above, but is subject to the Constitution and, as a consequence, must be in a state of readiness whenever elections are constitutionally due,” Gouveia further charged.
Lowenfield, in response to a previous letter from the PSC, had informed the organization on Monday that house-to-house registration would continue until further direction was received from a “duly constituted” Commission. He stressed that GECOM’s Legal Officer, Excellence Dazzell, advised that since the June 11th Order for the registration, based on the directions of the Commission on February 19th, 2019, “was signed and gazetted before the Judgment of the CCJ… it is valid.”
“The GECOM Secretariat clearly understands the Constitutional requirements and also the legal premise to operationalise a valid Order,” the CEO wrote.
Referring to the letter received from Lowenfield on July 22nd, Gouveia said that the CEO made no attempt to explain or provide any reason for GECOM’s rush to abandon the existing new National Register of Registrants Database (NRRD).
“Our letter raised a number of both factual and technical issues with you with regard to GECOM’s intention to establish a new Database …because of the fact that the current NRRD has been subject to cycles of continuous registration, under your custody, since the 2015 elections and has delivered credible National and Regional Elections and Local Government Elections in 2018,” Gouveia explained, before adding that GECOM took the policy decision to introduce the cycles of continuous registration precisely for the purpose of enabling the Commission to hold elections whenever constitutionally necessary.
According to the PSC Chairman, it is difficult to believe that the CEO expects the nation to accept that the decision made by the Commission to conduct house-to-house registration on February 19th, 2019, has not been overtaken and rendered useless by the decision and consequential orders of the CCJ.
“You must be aware that the Caribbean Court has directed that, consistent with Articles 106 (6) and 106 (7), General and Regional Elections are required to be held within three months of the date of the ruling of the Court, estimated to be no later than the 18th Day of September, 2019, and that GECOM was a party to the proceedings of the Court,” he wrote.
He further noted that Lowenfield in his response chose to ignore the fact that GECOM’s Counsel, Stanley Marcus, SC, appearing before the CCJ, had notified the Court that the conducting of house-to-house registration would result in polls not being possible before December 25th, 2019.
“We are quite frankly dismayed that you have found it convenient to be very selective in extracting excerpts from the advice received from your Legal Advisor who, as is publicly known, also advised you that house-to-house registration, in the face of the CCJ rulings, is illegal and should not be proceeded with,” he further argued.
Dazzell had also advised that as house-to-house registration is likely to extend beyond the three-month deadline set by the court, it is likely to lead to the commission acting in contempt of the court orders.
Gouveia maintained that GECOM is forcing this registration in isolation from all of the political parties involved, without independent scrutiny and in the absence of essential public information and education and stressed that the CEO failed to address concerns raised about the feasibility and credibility of a house-to-house registration exercise under the conditions which it is presently being conducted.
