-cites failure to uphold mandate
One of Guyana’s political parties, A New and United Guyana (ANUG), has launched a scathing criticism of the performance of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) citing egregious errors along with a failure to fully uphold its constitutional mandate.
In a release yesterday, the ANUG began by pointing out that GECOM is a constitutional agency governed by Guyana’s constitution and enjoys yearly subventions of taxpayer’s funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of Guyana’s dollars. And in 2024, GECOM received $3.5 billion of taxpayer’s dollars for recurrent activity costs and more importantly, the preparation for General Elections 2025.
As ANUG sees it, there seems to be “shirking” of duties and a lack of established standard operating protocols with most government/constitutional agencies, which it feels increases the likelihood of decisions being made in what appears to be an ad hoc or even partisan manner. Zeroing on the Commission, the party noted that in the past, GECOM on its own has erred “egregiously”, by allowing ineligible members – such as dual citizens – to sit in and vote in Parliament, the highest level of citizenry participation. Further, ANUG accused GECOM of allowing political parties to get away with failing to submit for review by the Commission, their campaign financing information as mandated by law in sections 120 to124 of the Representation of the People Act (ROPA).
According to the release, this continued repudiation of mandatory statutes governing GECOM’s responsibilities has now “scandalously” manifested itself by allowing an ineligible member to sit in Parliament and vote on issues of national importance (as explained by GECOM’s own legal advisor, Kurt Da Silva at a GECOM press conference on November 22). It reminded that it is unambiguously stated in ROPA, Section 108, subsections 2 and 3; “The seats are allocated first using the electoral quota. Then any remaining seats are allocated according to the largest number of votes below that quota.”
ANUG’s contention is that based on this interpretation by Da Silva, the LJP Party should have enjoyed the full term by getting the most votes in the combination of lists (Joinder). Instead, GECOM, and or their apparatus, by “willful negligence, oversight, or blatant disregard for established protocol,” allowed Dr Asha Kissoon, a representative of a party (TNM) other than the LJP, to “illegally enter, occupy, and now squat interminably” in Parliament – enjoying full benefits (perks and financial) compliments of the hard-working tax-payers who are footing the bill. “To make matters worse, this ineligible member Dr Asha Kissoon, of the revered House of Represen-tatives now occupies the post of Deputy Speaker having been nominated and elected with the full and continued support of the governing side, making them as guilty as GECOM.”
In addition to the administrative arm of GECOM being seemingly compromised, ANUG posited that the entire Commis-sion which has well respected and experienced legal luminaries on both sides, “seems to be complicit or do not have the intestinal fortitude to ‘open the Pandora’s Box’ in this ‘Asha Kissoon’ blunder, and address this glaring deficit in administration.”
It also lamented that the Chairwoman, Retired Justice Claudette Singh was either unaware/did not conduct enhanced due diligence/or trusted information presented to her by subordinates. “Invariably however, the buck stops with Ms. Claudette Singh and this issue will always be associated with her stewardship as Chair of GECOM.”
Along with the mis-spending of taxpayers’ funds, the release asserted that GECOM has lost the confidence of the Guyanese population with its poor administration, flouting of its constitutional mandate “on more than one occasion,” and inaction in righting these wrongs. Further, instead of correcting these “misjudgments and misdemeanors when highlighted,” as was done by Dr Gerald Forde in requesting an update on his status as Representative of the List of TNM), the Commission and administrative arm have done their best to “retard, drag on and pussyfoot” on a simple matter crystallised by the constitution. This, the party opined, magnifies the appearance to the public that GECOM has hidden agendas and motives, which are unwanted characteristics for any state agency/body, funded by taxpayers.
As such, it is ANUG’s position that the time has come for all Guyanese to echo the party’s call for GECOM to get its act together and perform at the level expected for such a distinguished agency fully upholding their constitutional mandate. “Anything less cannot be accepted. With an upcoming election mere months away, the public wants an agency free from perceived political bias, one that follows the constitution and operates with full transparency and accountability to the Guyanese people. Voters Beware!”
GECOM Legal Advisor, Kurt Da Silva (left) and Chairperson (Ret) Justice Claudette Singh
