On May 4th, the US Embassy here issued a statement in which it said that the US Department of State was supporting an 18-month project to strengthen the capacity of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the Attorney General’s Chambers regarding electoral processes, and to encourage civil society organizations (CSOs) to advocate for electoral reform in line with regional and international standards. The project, it said, will be implemented by the International Republican Institute (IRI).
The statement added that under the project, GECOM, the Attorney General’s Chambers and Guyanese CSOs will collaboratively consolidate and improve local electoral and constitutional law knowledge, establish an internal timeline to address electoral reform, improve collaboration for joint advocacy actions, and prioritize electoral and constitutional law issues while promoting reform through citizen engagement.
The statement added that the project was part of ongoing support by the United States Government to strengthen the capacity of Guyana’s governance for the benefit of all Guyanese.
A firestorm of criticism has since erupted over this project, much of it associated with the contractor, IRI and its antecedents and associations; and the lack of consultation with the opposition and civil society.
Official word of this project should not have come first from the US Embassy – a la the fiasco over the proposed Taiwan business office – but should have come directly from the Guyana Government as it had been hinted at by U.S. Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch in a meeting on February 8th this year with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd.
It wasn’t until May 6th, that the Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC issued a statement on his meeting on May 4th with a team from IRI when the project was discussed. He related in the statement that the main issue discussed was electoral and constitutional reform which the Attorney General spearheads for the Government and that IRI had expressed its commitment to work with the Government and GECOM in making these reforms a reality.
He reported the Resident Programme Director of IRI, Dorota Ryzy as reiterating that support for the project is coming from the Government of the United States represented by the US Embassy in Georgetown and that IRI will be coordinating and implementing the programme. Aid will come mainly in the form of expertise to be attached to the Constitutional Reform process at the level of Parliament and at the Attorney General’s Chambers to aid in the electoral reforms as well as at the Guyana Elections Commission.
IRI, the Attorney General said, also promised to liaise with the Canadian High Commission as well as the Indian High Commission, both of which have already pledged assistance to Guyana in this endeavour and will coordinate with those offices to avoid duplication.
The statement also said that the Attorney General expressed deep gratitude for the assistance offered and stressed the importance of fortifying Guyana’s constitutional framework, electoral laws and the entire electoral machinery, in order to protect democracy from being undermined by fraud of the type witnessed post 2nd March, 2020, regional and general elections.
“I feel compelled to emphasize that these matters are among the government’s highest priority. As they are vital to good governance, public order and national development. Therefore, time is of the essence. These reforms are intricately tied to Guyana’s electoral cycle and as a result, the assistance offered must manifest itself swiftly”, the Attorney General added, according to the statement.
The government must publish the full terms of reference for this project so that the public can judge what has been agreed to and whether room exists for meaningful consultation and deep involvement of civil society in its processes.
Electoral reform must come in two injections: the immediate needs and the medium to longer-term requirements. The government and GECOM must prepare immediately for the holding of Local Government Elections (LGE) as required by the end of the year. The country must not fall back into the rut of derogating LGE considering that these were held in 2016 and 2018 by the APNU+AFC government after an absence of 22 years under several PPP/C administrations. The immediate hurdles to overcome would be the removal of the Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield, legislative hallmarking of the Statement of Poll which would see its immediate release to the public after the counting of ballots and the extraction of a List of Electors from the National Register of Registrants and its updating. Were the US-financed project able to assist in providing guidance in these matters it would be most welcome as GECOM appears to be in a suspended state of animation even after the scandalous five-month wait for an election result last year. We have previously urged that GECOM seek assistance from CARICOM or the Commonwealth for the seconding of a Chief Election Officer and a deputy for the purposes of the LGE.
It is clearly understood that medium to longer-term electoral reform and constitutional reform matters such as the composition of GECOM, the selection of its chair, the manner of electing a President, the list system and the nature of the electoral system carry much greater heft and require full engagement in and out of Parliament between the major political forces and with the fullest involvement of civil society as envisaged by Article 13 of the Constitution of Guyana. It is left to be seen what the prospects are for concluding such a process in time for general elections in 2025.
There is a fair amount of hypocrisy all around particularly over IRI which was the contractor in the controversial Leadership and Democracy (LEAD) project funded by the US under the Ramotar administration. There had been no complaints then about IRI from the political directorate and when the Ramotar administration unbelievably decided to pull the plug on the project in December 2013 via the then Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon the move was broadly condemned by APNU and the AFC which wanted it to proceed. Parts of the project – `Vote Like A Boss’ and others – were proceeded with notwithstanding the PPP/C government’s opposition to it and the revoking of the work permit for one of its lead officials. The standoff was to culminate in the July 2nd 2014 infamous verbal assault on then US Ambassador Brent Hardt at his residence by the acting Foreign Affairs Minister Priya Manickchand in the company of governance advisor Gail Teixeira, drawing the tag of a `feral assault’ by no less than Dr Luncheon.
What Guyana narrowly escaped from on August 2nd 2020 was the near theft of its hard-won democracy by a cabal in the GECOM Secretariat and persons close to the then APNU+AFC administration. There must be no repeat of this. Every ounce of local and international support to thwart this is welcome. Many of the political types that have reacted negatively to this project were among those actively campaigning and conspiring to overthrow democracy in this country last year. They deserve short shrift.