The Guyana Elections Commission yesterday announced that former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi and former Chairman of the Ghana Electoral Commission Kwadwo Afari-Gyan will from next month be observing its preparations and conduct of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.
“These two gentlemen will be here from early January…those persons would be advisors to me and the Commission, as a whole, and they will also oversee the elections,” Chairperson of GECOM, Justice (Rtd) Claudette Singh yesterday told a press conference.
The two men will form the Commonwealth’s observer team which GECOM has said is just one of many as this country has approved the applications of several international organizations to observe the elections.
Afari-Gyan comes with experience as a lecturer and a professor in Political Science at the University of Ghana. He has also lectured in the United States and Nigeria.
Zaidi, a former diplomat and Director of Civil Aviation of India, served as Chief Election Commissioner of India for five years between 2012 and 2017.
Technical support is also being provided to the Commission by the United States through the International Republican Institute (IRI) and Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield said that they will help to develop a Civic and Voter Education package.
“I am advised that their civic and voter education package should commence in January,” he said.
The IRI and GECOM have already met and begun discussions on their work execution plan.
Jean-Pierre Kingsley, who served as Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer for 17 years, has also accepted the invitation of the GECOM Chair to provide technical electoral aid.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has been pressing for an “international presence in the machinery” of GECOM. He has argued that these external advisors along with international and local observers will serve as “quality control” and ensure that the upcoming elections are free and fair.
Meanwhile, Singh also used yesterday’s press conference to defend her decision to vote in favour of a five-day field verification of all the reputedly new registrants, about 16,300, who were recorded during the truncated house-to-house registration exercise.
Similar justifications were given for the decision to have Lowenfield’s contract renewed.
“In order to have credible elections you must have a credible list…I ruled in the interest of transparency and because I would like a credible list,” Justice Singh said.
On Tuesday, by a majority comprising opposition-nominated members and Singh, the Guyana Elections Commission decided on the verification process.
Level playing field
She said that next year’s elections must not be one where either side complains that they were not given due process. “I would like all to have a level playing field that in the end no one can complain that GECOM did something which was just foisted on them without having the list of the new registrants fully verified so that is my reason – in the interest of transparency.
“I would like all to have a level playing field that in the end no one can complain that GECOM did something which was just foisted on them without having the list of the new registrants fully verified so that is my reason – in the interest of transparency,” Singh stressed.
Each of the supposed 16,000 new registrants will receive a visit from GECOM staff in the company of scrutineers from the two parliamentary political parties. It is expected that this process will conclude on Sunday and therefore not interfere with the timelines established for the holding of elections by March 2nd, 2020.
Information Technology Manager of GECOM, Aneal Giddings explained that when the five-day period is completed, both sides will undertake to use the information gathered to determine who goes on the voters’ database.
“We would have to take all of these numbers holistically and provide them in a detailed form to the commission for them to approve the number that is to be added to the National Register of Registrants,” he said.
He explained that 365,000 names and biometric data were “sent overseas to be cross-matched and that exercise showed duplicates totaling 305,265 from either the house-to-house or the National Register of Registrants”.
Giddings said that some 60,083 names were not included in the cross-matching report, possibly due to the fact that they are new registrants.
And of that amount nearly 17,000 of them should have been duplicates or names that are already on the National Register of Registrants. When the math is done, he reasoned that about 44,020 may be new registrants, a number of whom are under 18 years and thus will not be on the list as they cannot vote next year.
Lowenfield pointed out that in total, it would mean that GECOM has about 16,400 names to be verified over the next five days, which he firmly believes is achievable.
Turning to the renewal of Lowenfield’s contract, Singh said that it would not serve this country any good to see his experience not be utilized.
“I voted with them for the renewal of this contract because I did not think it is proper to have someone just hanging; someone with this type of institutional knowledge and experience to just hang on like that. That is why his contract was renewed…,” she said.
“He is a man with institutional knowledge and it is very rare that one would find a person fit to run this institution and a person who has worked in several areas in this election agency and manned three elections,” she added
The renewal of the contract comes against the backdrop of concerns that Lowenfield’s health may be an impediment to his effective execution of his mandate. He has been hospitalized a number of times since last year.
