Commentator and politician Ralph Ramkarran SC has skewered draft electoral legislation from the PPP/C government as “woefully inadequate”.
Ramkarran, who was the presidential candidate for A New and United Guyana (ANUG) at the 2020 general elections, said that the proposed amendments of the Representation of the People Act were limited to setting higher penalties for elections offences, creating new elections offences, setting out a new structure for the biggest electoral district, Region Four and establishing new offices for it.
“Having now demonstrated a mindset of where it wants to go by the contents of the Bill, the Government is unlikely to divert from this already decided course, except perhaps with minor amendments. But much more is required, and this was the opportunity to accomplish needed reforms in other areas of the electoral system, especially since the next elections are four years away”, Ramkarran said in his Sunday Stabroek column yesterday.
He cited various proposals that he had written about over the years.
Ramkarran noted that for the 2001 elections, the Government and Opposition agreed to establish a mixed electoral system of proportional representation and first past the post based on the recommendations of the Constitution Reform Commission which he had chaired. He noted that elections were a few months away and agreement on the number of constituencies and their boundaries would have entailed extensive discussions.
“The Government and Opposition, as a temporary measure, agreed to create ten constituencies in accordance with the boundaries of the ten Regions. Twenty-five MPs were allocated to these new electoral districts, the number for each depending on the population of the Region. The clear intention was that this issue would be revisited after the elections. This never happened and the reform did not have the desired effect. No MP is identified with any particular constituency. No constituency offices have been established for the public to meet their MPs to address their issues and grievances. With elections four years away, now would be an opportune time to discuss the establishment of a genuinely mixed system with 30-40 constituencies and a national top up list of 25-35”, he asserted.
Ramkarran, who had been a member of the People’s Progressive Party for nearly 50 years before quitting in a row over the extent of corruption during its tenure, said that over many electoral cycles, election observers have recommended that the Guyana Elections Commission, (GECOM) be restructured so that its members are independent and not representative of political parties.
“This proposal took centre stage after the recent elections. The counter argument is that few ‘independent’ persons can be found in Guyana. But the other, unspoken, reason is that the main political parties are unwilling to loosen their grip on the electoral process. They feel safe and secure by the control that they exercise, which they expect will prevent rigging by the other side. This is not a foolproof system to avoid rigging, as we all saw during last year. Neither are high penalties”, he contended.
He argued that direct political influence over electoral bodies does not exist in the Caribbean and most of the Commonwealth.
“The time is now available for the extensive consultations that this constitutional reform would require. But the publication of the Bill without comment by the Government indicates that Government does not intend to accept the recommendations of observers, or even respond to them”, said Ramkarran, a one-time member of the elections commission which preceded the formation of GECOM.
He argued that no constitutional office in Guyana enjoys lifetime tenure and that even judges have fixed retirement dates by law.
“But Members of GECOM are appointed without limitation as to time. Their appointments cannot be terminated except by a complicated constitutional process. Under the 1980 Constitution, Article 161 provided for the tenure of Commissioners to end three months after elections. The amendment to article 161 in 2000 to provide for the Carter-Price formula by which both the Government and Opposition will have three members each and an independent Chair (on paper at least), did not provide for a terms of office. This contradicts Article 161(3)(b) of the Constitution, which requires the Leader of the Opposition to consult with non-governmental parties represented in the National Assembly on its nominations of members of GECOM. The lifetime tenure of Commissioners now deprives Mr. Lenox Shuman, representing neither the Government nor Opposition, from exercising his constitutional right of having a say in the Opposition’s nomination of Commissioners”, Ramkarran said.
He noted that in 2000, GECOM was given responsibility for registration under the National Registration Act. However, he said that the National Registration Act and the Representation of the People Act were never integrated.
“Many anomalies exist, one of the main ones being the contradiction between the residency requirement for national registration and the qualification to vote based on citizenship. A citizen of Guyana, wherever he or she may reside, is entitled to vote. It stands to reason that he or she should be entitled to register and vote wherever he or she may reside. This means that he or she is entitled to register under the National Registration Act because the electoral register is usually extracted from the national register compiled under the National Registration Act. But the National Registration Act prohibits registration of such a person unless he or she is in Guyana and provides an address”, Ramkarran said.
Pointing out that there are other important issues, he said that he will send his column with a covering letter to the Attorney General as his contribution to the consultation process. “Short shrift is anticipated”, he said.
Intended
The Ministry of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs released draft amendments to the Representation of the People Act (RoPA) on November 5th in keeping with President Irfaan Ali’s directive for planned consultations.
Last month, Ali told a virtual press conference that six weeks will be given for the review and comments on the amendments after which it would be laid before the National Assembly.
The draft amendment to RoPA proposes that once the CEO receives the tabulation forms from each district, then they must immediately post them to the Commission’s website and failure to do so or if incorrect documents are posted would see them being liable to fine of $10 million and life in prison.
“The Chief Election Officer shall, after calculating the total number of valid votes of electors which have been cast for each list of candidates, on the basis of the information contained in the District Tabulation Forms received from the returning officers, including District Tabulation Form from the returning officer of district Region 4, under section 84(11), ascertain the result of the election in accordance with sections 97 and 98,” it proposes.
The document also states that the CEO shall, within 12 hours of the calculation of the results, prepare his report for the commission to declare and publish the results of the election.
It states that “the Chief Election Officer commits an offence if he (a) fails to calculate the total number of votes on the basis of information contained in the District Tabulation Forms, as required by subsection (1); (b) prepares the report, required under subsection (2), with falsified information; or (c) fails to prepare the report required under subsection (2) or fails to prepare the report within the time specified under subsection (2), and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of ten million dollars and to imprisonment for life.”
The majority of the issues surrounding last year’s results stemmed from the largest electoral district – Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) – and the proposed amendments focuses on addressing some of those issues.
At the 2020 elections, District Four returning officer Clairmont Mingo was accused of doing a number of things to prevent scrutiny of the results he was declaring. He was accused of not allowing the verification of the numbers, among other things. Ultimately, he was dragged before the courts on several election-related charges and those cases are currently ongoing.
The document proposes splitting Region Four into four sub-districts – East Bank Demerara, East Coast Demerara, North Georgetown and South Georgetown – effectively adding a new section to Section 6 of ROPA, which deals with polling districts and divisions.
