Dear Editor,
In recent days, attentive readers of the “Letter to the Editor“ section of Stabroek News will have witnessed an exchange of opinions between Attorney General Anil Nandlall and Messrs. Sherwood Lowe and Vincent Alexander revolving around the question of possible voter impersonation during the General Elections of March 2, 2019. The story culminated on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, with the AG Nandlall challenging the two gentlemen “to prove to the public, a singular case where a vote was cast by a person in the name of a deceased person or in the name of a person overseas on March 2nd, 2020.” We will have to see in the coming days, how this challenge will continue. Importantly, wining one seat more, i.e. 7,082 votes, makes the difference, whether or not a party wins the general elections in Guyana. In fact, the current government has a one-seat majority in the National Assembly. It is therefore essential that all measures be taken to ensure that only eligible voters present in Guyana on Election Day cast their vote once.
Here, I would to like to take the opportunity to draw the Attorney General’s attention to a letter I had penned last Friday, November 25, 2022 to the Editor of Stabroek News. The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had reported a voter turnout of 70.2%, which is misleading as GECOM used the number of registered voters (661,378) as the denominator. It is well-known that the National Voters List is larger than the number of eligible voters living in Guyana as it contains many Guyanese citizens living abroad, which are not eligible to cast votes unless they are present in the country on Election Day. Furthermore, a recent ruling by the Chief Justice determined that the removal of Guyanese living abroad from the National Voters List would be unlawful and unconstitutional. It is evident that GECOM’s reported voter turnout is too low and therefore misleading.
On the basis of an estimated number of adult Guyanese (18+) of 508,742 and the 464,563 votes cast as determined by the recount, I determined that the actual voter turnout was 91.3%. This number is essentially identical with the 91.4% reported for the 2020 General Elections in an analysis of the voting and population trends from 1964 to 2020 in Guyana by the Sweden-headquartered International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Furthermore, Dr. Tara Singh, in a letter published in Kaieteur News on November 18, 2022 [3] stated that, “Guyana had 470,000 voting age population in 2020 of which 460,352 voted”. Using Dr. Singh’s voter number of 470,000 and GECOM’s 464,563 total votes cast (which includes blank/invalid votes), the voter turnout amounts to a staggering 98.8%. It is evident to any unbiased observer that voter turnouts ranging from 91.3 to 98.8% are unrealistically high for liberal democracies without mandatory voting.
Herewith, I invite AG Nandlall to comment in public how the very high voter turnout numbers of the 2020 general elections ranging between 91.3 and 98.8% are to be explained best. Evidently, Guyanese living abroad could travel to Guyana to cast their vote on Election Day. Given the limited number of international flights to Guyana per week in early 2020 and in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic unfolding, the number of these Guyanese would amount at best to a few hundred extra voters.
In closing, I restate the three recommendations, which I made to the Com-mission of Inquiry into the 2020 General and Regional Elections in my letter of November 18, 2020 to ensure that future general elections are less subject to manipulations and that election results are reported faster to the Guyanese and international public.
1. Introduction of an electronic voting system
An electronic voting system will automate the tabulation process and minimizes the possibilities of human manipulation aimed at altering the vote count in favor of one or more parties. In addition, the elections results can be made public within a few hours after polls have closed. Brazil has been successfully using an electronic voting system for more than 25 years. See my letter of October 4, 2022 to Stabroek News [4] for details.
2. Adoption of a biometric voter identification system
The electronic voting system should be complemented by a biometric voter identification system. This will ensure that every registered voter can only cast one vote on voting day. The biometric system will match the voter identity with the registry of eligible voters. It will curb repeat voting at multiple polling stations and effectively prevent voter impersonation.
3. Reform of the method to calculate the voter turnout
Voter turnout should be calculated on the basis of the total votes cast and the number of registered voters present in Guyana on Election Day. This measure will serve as an early warning system to detect any voting irregularities.
Sincerely,
Andre Brandli, PhD
Professor
Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Munich
