While several key electoral reform recommendations have been addressed, 19 others – including campaign financing and dispute resolution – remain untouched, according to a report from the European Union (EU) Election Follow-Up Mission (EFM).
Providing political context, the report stated that Guyana’s economy grew by an unparalleled 62.3 per cent in 2022 and with the oil and gas sector fuelling this economic boom the stakes are “high for the 2025 general elections, as, whichever party wins, it will have at its disposal unprecedented financial resources to implement its development policies”.
Recently handed over to the Guyana Government and published, the report listed recommendations which would be prioritised in any future electoral technical aid as they had the highest potential to enhance the quality of electoral processes.
These include prohibition of the use of state resources for political campaigning, development of effective legislation to regulate political finance, transformation of state-owned media into a genuine public service broadcaster and establishment of a comprehensive election dispute resolution system.
An EFM was deployed here from 7 May to 1 June 2023 to assess the progress made in electoral reform and the implementation status of the 2020 EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) recommendations. The EFM was led by Javier Nart, Member of the European Parliament.
The report said that the Mission met representatives of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), members of government, members of parliament, representatives of political parties, the media, civil society, domestic observers, development partners, and members of the diplomatic community. The EFM also convened a roundtable gathering, attended by 28 stakeholders, where electoral reform and the recommendations of the EOM were discussed.
The final report of the EU EOM in June 2020, offered 26 recommendations, eight of which were accorded priority.
The EU report of 2023 said that priority recommendations, relating to the credibility of the tabulation process and the transparency of the declaration of results have been implemented in full. These
measures were contained in the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, which was enacted in December 2022. The new legal rules were introduced as a specific response to the wrongdoing which occurred during the elections in 2020. Deterrence measures were also introduced throughout the law.
Provisions in the National Registration (Amendment) Act, 2022, have extended significantly the period for voter registration.
“This development amounts to partial implementation of a recommendation which, in addressing voter registration more broadly, called for improved access to voter registration, the 2023 report said.
Without any advancement
“On the other side, nineteen recommendations remain without any advancement. Among these is a priority recommendation on electoral dispute resolution, where limited administrative remedies drive
disputes to the courts, after elections, where delays may last for years. There has also not been any move to promote the public service obligations of state media, another priority recommendation, leaving them to continue to operate as agents of government. Neither has there been any move to impose identification requirements on political advertising on social media, again a priority of the EOM”, the 2023 report said.
The implementation of two other priority recommendations is “apparently underway”. One of these addressed the fragmented and contradictory nature of electoral law. Further, legislation was passed in November 2022 to establish a Constitution Reform Commission (CRC). The terms of reference include electoral reform, with a specific focus on the composition of GECOM. The 2023 report said that this represents some progress towards implementation of a priority recommendation to reform GECOM, but the CRC has yet to be set up.
The 2023 report said that while no concrete steps have yet been taken to achieve this, the government publicly re-committed itself to implementing campaign financing reforms while the EFM was in country. “This has the potential lead to the implementation of another priority recommendation”, the 2023 report added.
The report said that the political context for electoral reform is one of “sharp polarization” between the government and the opposition. It added that it has proven almost impossible for any consensus to be reached on issues of electoral reform, or, more broadly, on any governance issues since the elections in 2020.
“The shared governance notions present in the Constitution are unfortunately not being implemented and the legislative role of the National Assembly is limited”, the report added.
More than two years remain before the next elections, expected in November 2025 and this period offers enough time to address some of the recurring problems of the electoral process in Guyana, the report contended.
Closed list
One of the unaddressed recommendations is the operation of the closed list system and the impact which it has upon the rights of voters. The 2023 report noted that a present, under the Representation of
the People Act, political parties have total freedom as to how to allocate any seats they win among candidates on their list.
“There is no fixed place within the list, or ranking of any kind and hence voters, in casting their votes for a list of candidates, do not have any information as to who exactly will represent them. This is clearly contrary to the intention of Article 160 of the Constitution which provides that, in drawing up lists of candidates, the manner in which the lists are prepared `shall allow voters to be sure which individuals they are electing to the National Assembly’.
This recommendation could have been effected through an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, but was not considered for inclusion. This recommendation is also important for promotion of the membership of women in the National Assembly, as new rules on fixing the order of candidates to be allocated seats in advance of elections could include a quota for women…”, the 2023 report said.
Any change in the composition of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) would require a constitutional amendment for which a compromise is needed between the government and opposition. The 2023 report said that to date, there were some limited stakeholder consultations within a technical assistance programme, but so far no consensus has been reached about how to move forward in this matter.
“Except for the ruling PPP/C, all stakeholders generally agree that the composition of the GECOM, based on 3+3+1 formula, should be changed, by including additional independent representatives of civil society and/or professional bodies”, the 2023 report said. It added that the PPP/C takes a more cautious approach, maintaining that it was the Secretariat technical staff who attempted to manipulate the results of the 2020 GRE and the GECOM in its current composition saved the situation. In addition, they claim that in a small and polarised society like Guyana, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find truly independent people without any past political linkages, the 2023 report said. It added that the party will wait for the outcome of the national consultation process by the CRC before making the final decision in this matter.
Recommendation 7 calls on GECOM to engage regularly with all electoral contenders, both at national and regional level, through all phases of the electoral process. However, the 2023 report said that GECOM still does not have any communication strategy to ensure regular engagement with stakeholders, even during the immediate pre-election period. There are no regular press conferences or stakeholder meetings and the only sources of information for the general public and electoral stakeholders are sporadic press releases, the GECOM website and social media, and media interviews with individual partisan Commissioners. It added that several interlocutors acknowledged that the accessibility of the Secretariat for bilateral ad-hoc consultations has improved under the leadership of the new CEO.
The 2023 report stated that there has been no progress on the two recommendations on the campaign environment and finance. Recommendation 11 of the 2020 report suggests prohibition of the use of state resources for political campaigning in order to create a more level playing field, as well as regulation of the conduct and timeframe of the campaign, based on consultations with all relevant stakeholders.
“To date, there is no legal prohibition of the use of state resources for political campaigning and the campaign period remains unregulated. There appears to be no initiative from the government or opposition to propose amendments to the legislation in this regard and these topics do not feature prominently in the ongoing political debate in the country”, the 2023 report said.
Priority recommendation 12 urges development of effective legislation to regulate political finance, taking into account the principles of equality, transparency and accountability.
“So far, no new legislation has been developed to regulate political finance. However, during the EFM, the ruling PPP/C re-committed itself to implementing campaign financing reforms, in line with the party’s manifesto published ahead of the 2020 elections. The PPP/C Secretary General and incumbent Vice President informed the EFM that the party is looking at possibilities for the publication of the names of donors and the limitation of financing, while preventing victimisation of donors, which is likely to occur in a small and polarised society”, the 2023 report said.
It noted that in December 2022, Guyana joined with 187 member states to the UN Convention against Corruption to observe the International Anti-Corruption Day.
“By doing so the government acknowledged that corruption, among other things, undermines the foundation of democratic institutions by distorting electoral processes”, the 2023 report noted.
Media regulation
Four recommendations were made in 2020 on the reform of different aspects of media regulation. One of these addressed defamation, while the other three related to provisions of the media regulatory framework and the operation of the state media. Three of the four recommendations on the media require legislative change for implementation, the 2023 report said. The recommendation to decriminalise defamation would require amendment of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act, but there has not been any change made to this law. The other two legal changes proposed were introduction of a new law to regulate state-owned media, a priority recommendation, and amendment of the existing Broadcasting Act. New guidelines to strengthen the supervision of the broadcast media during elections were also proposed but none of changes recommended has been made, the 2023 report said.
On the participation of minorities, the EU EOM in 2020 found that indigenous people “were strikingly absent” from the election administration. A recommendation was made that representatives of indigenous communities be included in all levels of the election administration, including the board of GECOM. The 2023 report said that the amendments to the Representation of the People Act did not address the issue of inclusion of Amerindians in the election administration.
The 2023 report pointed out that both priority recommendations 24 and 25, which called for adoption of clear written procedures for the transmission and tabulation of election results, and for the mandatory publication of detailed polling station results and digital copies of all Statements of Poll (SoPs), together with any declaration of results, were fully implemented. This was achieved through adoption of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2022.
With the aim of speeding up the tabulation process in the General and Regional Election in the three most populous districts – Regions 3, 4 and 6 – the Act divided them into administrative sub-districts, with each sub-district, under the management of a “supernumerary” returning officer conducting its own sub-district level tabulation for all polling places within the area. The district returning officer will then tabulate results for all sub-districts and publicly declare the district results.
The 2023 report noted that the Act in the new sub-sections 84 1B and 1C provides the procedure to be used for tabulation of results at district and sub-district level, which includes displaying each SoP, using an electronic mechanism, for all persons entitled to be present to clearly see the information on the SoP. The CEO shall, immediately upon receipt, post an electronic copy of the district and sub-district tabulation forms on the GECOM website. The amended subsection 83(10) provide additional procedures for the relay of results, namely that both the GECOM Chair and CEO are entitled to receive their own copy of the SoPs in sealed envelopes.
The new section 83B provides for the returning officer and supernumerary returning officer, upon receipt, to immediately post an electronic copy of the SoP on the GECOM website, to be publicly viewed, the 2023 report noted.
The 2023 report said that one of the most controversial changes to the Representation of the People Act is the removal of the requirement of residence in Guyana as a prerequisite to register to vote. The Act now requires only that someone has a “registered address” in the district to be included in the voters’ register.
“This cannot be characterised as a measure of reform, as it is highly unusual, globally, to accord voting rights within the country to the diaspora. Some countries facilitate out-of-country voting (as Guyana had done in the past and subsequently terminated) enabling the diaspora to vote abroad, but there is no international standard which mandates this. Voters are more usually required to reside and be domiciled in the place where they are registered to vote. This change in the law, adopted in response to a court decision, is extremely controversial, and not perceived to be politically neutral”, the report stated.
The roundtable meeting (Delegation of the European Union to Guyana photo)
