Dear Editor,
I am no expert, but merely a graduate student of electoral policy and administration and a democracy and governance professional. This is not an attempt at false modesty. It is a responsibility; one you will understand better as you read my personal thoughts on electoral reform and the current situation in Guyana. There are many different types of electoral systems, lots of dense literature on the pros and cons of each and no generally accepted basis for choosing one system above another, apart from the needs to which that system must respond. As a result, both the choice of electoral system and advice towards that choice is very difficult for everyone involved. These challenges also apply to choices about changes to the established electoral system, and demands an electoral reform process designed with national aspirations and needs at its core.
Guyanese scholars (the most recent in my repertoire being Dr. Desmond Thomas) have written to some extent on our history of tumultuous (lik-down, bruk-down) elections and its impact on development. The 5-month electoral process in 2020 was a sharp reminder that we are yet to solve this national problem and it deepened existing wounds among our people. After the 2020 election, historically high levels of distrust and suspicion among competing groups became worse. In this situation, how electoral reform is approached is just as important as pursuing reform. While some groups are interested in swift actions to safeguard against some challenges of the 2020 electoral process, there is no quick fix to electoral reform especially when the process seems to require re-establishing trust among key national groups (like political actors and civil society). Revisions to the legal framework for elections, in this case amendments to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), are only one part of the reform solution.
Currently, the draft ROPA amendments reflect the interest of Govern-ment and the Peoples’ Progressive Party/Civic (the draft was reportedly reviewed by the party’s central executive committee) and is open for public feedback until December 17, 2021. While government has written directly to some stakeholders, there seems to have been no other efforts to facilitate a consultation process beyond this. Whether we like the method or not, we find ourselves in a situation where the release of the ROPA amendments has officially begun the national electoral reform process. It is far from an ideal start but offers an opportunity for Govern-ment to take a step back, consider the feedback from key groups and hit the reset button by facilitating an initial round of consultations to get a sense of stakeholder interests and pave the way forward based on participatory decision making. As we continue along this journey of electoral reform, there are several things we should do our best to remember:
1. While it may be understandable, given our history, that the two major political parties are suspicious, distrustful, and even afraid of each other and they are both to varying degrees suspicious, distrustful, and dismissive of civil society, if we are serious about pursuing electoral reform, we will need to figure out an arrangement of working together. The longer we take, the more expensive of a problem it will become. Division serves external parties, not us.
2. Reforms to our electoral system should be chosen by a broad set of actors and stakeholders. This should not be left to one group or self-declared experts and/or advisors. (This is why I am careful to not declare myself as having more expertise than I currently do.)
3. No political interest should dominate the decision-making process. Domination of one group’s interests over another has landed us in the political pickle we are in.
4. We must consider the consequences of reforms. For example, the current draft ROPA amendments are heavy on punishments for the Chief Elections Officer and other electoral management body staff. How will this impact the hiring of quality staff and general administration of elections in the future? Good luck to us dealing with ourselves
Sincerely,
Sara Bharrat