Dear Editor,
Amazingly, Facebook produces memory moments annually and strangely enough, I am bombarded by memory moments from 5 years ago – the year 2020. Those who are aware of my role in the historical year 2020 will know that as one of the persons on the frontline, 5 years ago, at great personal risk to myself, just about this time, I was among the few who saw firsthand; not hearsay from a boardroom or reading in a newspaper, but live, what occurred on elections day (one day). I think that I must use this opportunity to commend the Polling Station staff of GECOM (mainly teachers) from 2020, for their positive effort in producing those Finalized Statements of Poll for GECOM and the other stakeholders. They conducted themselves professionally. The place where the integrity of the elections process got seriously compromised was at the Ashmin Building and at GECOM headquarters and thus these polling day staff cannot be held accountable for a few rogues in the system. So thank you GECOM polling station staff.
We must raise our hats to those persons who mainly came from the teaching profession. They did not allow themselves to be contaminated by the partisan campaign or any partisan directive from the few senior rogues within GECOM; they put their head down and followed the manual.
In my conversations with a few of those whom I observed and chatted with on the East Coast of Demerara, they all told me that the training manuals were hastily assembled and the training was hurried. All of whom I spoke to were teachers and they explained to me that critical explanations of polling station procedures were revealed to them in a hurried manner and with alacrity and that sort of knowledge transfer was not helpful to their work. If it was not for their experience in previous elections, they believed that they might not have been successful in their role in producing and delivering the finalized statement of polls to the stakeholders. There is a key lesson to be learnt from these utterances.
It is with this background, that I am appealing to GECOM and more particularly the Chief Election Officer, as a citizen of Guyana who is a lover of democracy, to commence the training of all the teachers from now on the electoral procedures. There must be no hurry in the training this time around. Very early, we must have a pool of well-trained and equipped officials, (plus extra backup), who can act as Polling Station Staff. This process should not be delayed anymore.
Reading the media, I can see that GECOM is again engaged in the usual “waste of time” charade with distracting activities that have no relevance to the 2025 General Elections. These occurrences focus my mind on the thought set that “only the insane will do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome”. The GECOM Leadership has to act more professionally now and develop a “2025 General and Regional Elections Project Plan” with a Gantt Chart with all the project activities and just start implementing the project. It is disgusting that March 2025 will be upon us shortly and still GECOM appears to have not discussed and approved at its Secretariat Meeting “2025 General and Regional Elections Project Plan”. What I am seeing from GECOM and some stakeholders, is a continuation of acts that are designed to waste valuable time all sorts of esoteric and obscure ideas that have no relevance or input into successful elections.
Any person with any iota of common sense will tell you that House-to- House Registration and Biometrics will take at minimum two years to implement and only a public comic or someone who is up to no good, will at this late stage (months before elections), be seeking to be pushing these ideas. Why did they not push this idea in 2022? Why can’t they push this idea in 2026? Why now?
What was clear in 2020 was, that regardless that the list of electors was 660,998 registered voters, well above the final number of persons who cast their ballots, it provided an arena of inclusivity; meaning more than 99.99% of those who registered themselves and presented themselves to vote, was allowed to vote in the District in which they were registered. It is with this background, that I offer full commendations to those teachers and other polling day staff who manned those polling stations.
I see no reason why in 2025, it will be any different; meaning once you make the effort to register yourself or certify that you are on the list before the Claims and Objection Period, you will be able to vote in the district you are registered. The bottom line is well established that the 2020 list of electors served the purpose for which it was established; “every person who was eligible to vote and wanted to vote; got to vote”.
In closing Editor, I am forewarning the GECOM Chairman and the GECOM CEO, failure to urgently develop this “2025 General and Regional Elections Project Plan” now and commence early training of the eligible polling staff will provide unreasonable pressure to the system later down in the year; a pressure I am not sure the system can bear. This nation will hold them collectively, personally and individually accountable for any failure to commence this Project now. Let the process begin!
Regards
Sasenarine Singh
Citizen of Guyana
