Saying that Guyana’s electoral system is in desperate need of significant reforms, the main opposition coalition APNU+AFC has urged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) not to hold elections until before.
APNU+AFC met virtually with GECOM on Tuesday and was represented by PNCR Chairman Shurwayne Holder, General Secretary Geeta Chandan-Edmond, AFC General Secretary David Patterson and AFC Execu-tive Member Cathy Hughes.
The Commission was represented by the GECOM Chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh, Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud and the six commissioners.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the coalition said its team, during the meeting, expressed the view that the country’s election system required substantial reforms and that GECOM should not engage in any new elections without these reforms. It noted that those reforms must benefit from international best practices and are geared at producing credible results that will have public acceptance.
During a brief telephone interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Holder related that the discussions were preliminary since it was the first time that the coalition was meeting with the elections commission to raise its concerns. He added that they are now in the process of formulating a master plan to present to GECOM when they meet again.
“GECOM has agreed to meet with us more frequently where we can work together to get on track for comprehensive electoral reform. We have to find a mechanism to have a clean list so that we don’t have the same issues as we had at the last elections. Bearing in mind the court ruling [that GECOM cannot remove names from the voters’ list] we have to get something in place where we can all agree that the list is clean and the results credible,” Holder related.
The Coalition has been advocating for a new voters’ list, arguing that the existing one is bloated with the names of now deceased and migrant voters.
Holder said that the APNU+AFC is also of the view that GECOM should embark on an internal investigation into the 2020 elections since the results were steeped in controversy.
“Now is the right time for us to engage in electoral reforms and we believe that constitutional and legislative amendments are absolutely necessary if we want to move away from what happened in 2020. GECOM should undertake an internal review of the last elections so that it can identify what was its shortcomings and where the system failed us,” Holder explained.
GECOM agreed on an internal investigation into the last elections at one of its statutory meetings last month. However, it did not agree on when the process should commence.
Addressing other reforms in addition to mechanisms of arriving at a clean list, Holder said that the incorporation of technology in the voting process is also a step in the right direction, while shying away from saying that the voting process should be fully electronic. He suggested the use of biometrics as a means of identifying voters as opposed to the current verification methods employed by GECOM.
“We have to benefit from the use of technology. We are not saying to make the process fully electronic but we are in the technological age and we should be using that to our advantage,” he added.
He further stated that the APNU+AFC is looking to create national dialogue around the electoral reform process and therefore all stakeholders must be involved.
“This should not be dealt with in a piecemeal fashion. We are hoping that it can be done holistically with the involvement of everyone. We want the political parties, GECOM and every other stakeholder to come to the table and let us work on something that is acceptable to all sides so that the confidence in the electoral system can be reinstated,” the PNCR Chair related.
Since November last year, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, as part of the electoral reform process, released the proposed amendments to the Representation of the People Act (RoPA) and called for submissions from political parties and stakeholders alike. To date, with the exception of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), no other opposition party has made any submission.
Leader of the PNCR Aubrey Norton had told Stabroek News that the party is committed to discussing all issues and then taking positions on them. He did not reveal what the PNCR’s position on the proposed amendments are.
When asked for a progress update on its submissions, Holder said “We are currently working with our lawyers and other stakeholders to come up with sweeping changes to RoPA. We believe that the present document has served its purpose and needs to be updated but it has to be done collectively and not by one political party or one entity.”
“We are looking for national dialogue on these issues and a place where everyone can come together and produce something with consensus,” he added.
GECOM is currently hosting a continuous registration cycle in preparation for the past-due Local Government Elections.
In its statement yesterday, the coalition said its team brought to the attention of the commission a series of issues surrounding the current Continuous Registration Process. These included, among many other issues, lack of public information on Continuous Registration, breaches in GECOM’s processes, and lack of consistency in the standard operating procedures at various offices. The coalition said it highlighted the specific case of birth certificates being used with varying features, while GECOM did not seem to have any mechanism in place to confirm their authenticity.
“Breaches in the hiring process and breaches in the process of issuing ID cards were also brought to the commission’s attention. Based on these and other concerns, the Coalition expressed a lack of confidence in the continuous registration process, but, however, pledged that its Scrutineers will continue to be present at the various offices to police the process with the aim of protecting the interest of all Guyanese,” the statement added.
The APNU+AFC said that GECOM committed to deliberate on the matters raised and conduct thorough investigations. Additionally, it was agreed that GECOM will share its findings and will meet with the Coalition more frequently to discuss its concerns along with issues surrounding electoral reform.
Yesterday, Stabroek News reported that during the meeting with GECOM, APNU+AFC made a complaint of an instance where a PPP polling agent was employed as a registration clerk. However, CEO Persaud had reported that the issue was dealt with and the clerk’s employment terminated immediately.
A Clerk II is responsible for filling registration forms and verifying documents, among other responsibilities.
