A New and United Guyana (ANUG) met with a team from the Carter Center which was here on a pre-election visit and underlined the need for the electronic release of Statements of Poll immediately after the count at polling stations.
On June 26, Brett Lacy, Democracy Program Associate Director; Carlos Valenzuela, Senior Electoral Advisor; and Nicholas Jahr, Political Advisor, met with ANUG representatives, Timothy Jonas, General Secretary; Jonathan Subrian, Organizing Secretary; and Althia King, Executive Member, a party release said on Saturday.
Lacy, ANUG said, explained that the Carter Center was conducting a pre-election assessment mission to explore the current electoral and political environment and to assess whether electoral and constitutional reforms have been advanced, to inform the status of preparation for the upcoming 2025 General Elections. She also took the opportunity to inquire about the current government’s proposed electoral reform
In response, Jonas expressed the view that the electoral system was essentially sound, highlighting that it was the transparency of the process which allowed the public to be immediately alerted by the attempt to undermine the process in 2020. He reminded that ANUG had advocated for two changes in the system: i) that the Statements of Poll upon signing at each place of poll be immediately uploaded by the personnel at each place of poll to a public website as well as being attached to the door of the place of poll, so that the underlying objective of publicity and transparency is more effectively achieved, and ii) that the system of removing names of voters presumed dead from the voters’ list include the removal of names of any person who did not undertake any statutorily required transaction for seven years (renewal of passport or driver’s licence or national ID, payment or receipt of monies from NIS, payment of any income or other tax, receipt of any Government pension) so that the criticism that ‘dead people’ are on the List is addressed. These recommendations, he added, would further increase efficiency, transparency and accountability to Guyana’s current Electoral Process.
The release said that Jahr noted that since 1992, Guyana has metamorphosed and is now, unexpectedly, thrust into the limelight as the newest petro state. And given the financial boom, he enquired about managed expectations, and if this wealth is equitably distributed amongst the Guyanese populace.
Subrian in responding to the question, said that of the approximately $1 trillion 2024 Budget, almost 60 per cent was channelled into public infrastructure, and opined that the general perception is that the government contracts are apportioned to “patrons, friends and family” of the current government, to the exclusion of others, where, often, the National Tender Board’s regulations are, seemingly, unsupervised, flouted or totally bypassed.
Examples of these perceived indiscretions that reside in the public domain, were cited by Subrian, who pointed out that the returns on investment of the Guyanese tax payers’ dollars were unrealised by successive governments. He narrowed his focus to Guyana’s planned Amaila Falls Hydro Project. This, he explained, was the 2013 brainchild of the then PPP Government, to alleviate the power shortage, at a Guyana’s taxpayers tag of US$840 million – only to be scrapped by the succeeding 2015 APNU+AFC Government – and then be resuscitated by the current PPP/C government.
The release said that Valenzuela enquired about the pulse of the Guyanese population pre and post elections as well how the televised parliamentary debates are received/ processed by the viewing public.
King stated that Guyana has a population that comprises approximately 65 per cent youths and the televised Parliamen-tary sessions invariably degenerate into harsh personal attacks, political accusations and confrontations, while the perceived racial undertones spread negativity and erode confidence. She posited that this sort of behaviour sends the wrong message, and that Parliamentary sessions and debates should be impartially supervised by the Speaker of the House to ensure political maturity and decorum.
The ANUG executive member further stated that in her analysis, in the pre-election period, public discord peaks and is saturated with racial overtones. However, the reverse is observed post-election where civility and respect are generally normalized. She attributed this phenomenon to political activism by both major ethnic-based political parties.
At the conclusion of the consultation, the release said that the Carter Center personnel informed that a gap analysis will be performed and a tabulated compendium will be packaged for additional reporting and evaluation, with the collation of data received from the multiple sources, the release added.
The Center team also met with the government and the PNCR.
