With the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) signalling that it will be ready for Local Govern-ment Elections (LGE) by the end of November, the government yesterday confirmed that it will move to hold the polls immediately after a formal notification, by which time proposed reforms should be enacted.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, who is also General Secretary of the governing People’s Pro-gressive Party (PPP), responded in the affirmative to a question from Stabroek News on whether government is committed to naming a date once the GECOM indicates their readiness.
Jagdeo yesterday voiced the party’s confidence that it will be victorious at those polls and its readiness to contest.
“…I have already convened a meeting and we have started working on organisational structures around the country. We are putting our party in readiness mode,” he said at a press conference hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
Jagdeo also went on to state that government will be advancing amendments to the Representation of the People Act when the National Assembly resumes sitting in October. With the amendments set to be tabled after the parliamentary recess, the Vice President is confident that they will be passed before the hosting of LGE.
Touching on some of the changes in the amendments, Jagdeo said that country will see the discretionary powers of the Chief Election Officer reduced. He said, too, that a new requirement will be for GECOM to post statements of poll on its website.
He also stated that changes such as training materials for GECOM staff must be made public at least three months in advance to be public will be necessary.
Jagdeo added that in a bid to have better administrative control of polling day activities, the amendment will formalise the sub-division of region four into four sub-districts. Those will be East Bank and East Coast Demerara and North and South Georgetown.
One of the changes that the PPP would not be supporting is the creation of a new electoral register as Jagdeo rubbished calls by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton for a fresh register.
Norton has made the call, while noting that the position has been channeled through their commissioners at GECOM’s weekly meetings.
Norton has stated that a voters’ list from the current register would be bloated and should be rectified before any election is hosted. He has said that his party will continue to intensify efforts to block a padded list.
When asked about the list on the sidelines of the swearing of new government Commissioner Clement Rohee, GECOM Chair Claudette Singh had said persons have been placed on the list legally and that the claims and objection period is aimed at rectifying faults.
Jagdeo yesterday reminded that the High Court has found it to be unconstitutional to remove voters’ names based on residency. “This is precisely what Norton wants us to do,” he said as he responded to the Opposition Leader’s calls
‘A trap’
Meanwhile, addressing the proposal for integrating biometric safeguards into the electoral process, Jagdeo said while his party supports such technology to improve polling day management, there is a restriction on it which would disenfranchise voters.
GECOM’s opposition-nominated commissioners Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman recently proposed the use of biometrics as a part of the electoral process.
Via a motion, the opposition commissioners noted that GECOM has discussed the introduction of a biometric identification system at the place of poll as an additional mechanism for enhancing the system of identifying voters on Election Day and such a feature will significantly impact and improve the overall systems by reducing the number of successful instances of voter impersonation.
Countering their position, Jagdeo yesterday said that if such a method is used, the results of the elections can be challenged in the court.
“We are not going to fall into that trap again,” the Vice President said as he referenced the successful court challenge to an agreed amendment to cater for the use of identification cards for voting.
The challenge had argued that the legislation was in contravention of the constitution, which states that a person must be registered, be a Guyanese and 18 years or above to vote at an election.
“I think this is precisely the trap that they are hoping to set once again—that should we go into the parliament, we pass a law on biometrics to prevent people from voting and only on the basis of these biometrics and then they lose the elections, they go back to court again, using the same challenge that they had in 1997 that the use of biometrics was unconstitutional,” Jagdeo said.
“We will not support the use of biometrics as a restriction on people’s right to vote,” he further said before adding that his party does not oppose to measures to strengthen polling day scrutiny activities.
Singh in her engagement with the media this week said that GECOM is aiming to host the LGE by the end of November.
“We just finished our continuous registration. And we are moving now to have a preliminary list and to move then to claims and objections…we are very much looking at the end of November, early December [for LGE],” Justice Singh said.
The polls were constitutionally due at the end of last year.
Norton has charged that government has no intention to host the local government polls.
