It is now some four months since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government published its proposed amendments to the Representation of People Act (RoPA) and the main political Opposition – the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition – is yet to make any recommendations.
This was revealed by Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister, Gail Teixeira during a televised programme to reflect on the two-year anniversary of the historic March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections that resulted in a five-month political impasse caused by blatant rigging attempts.
In an effort to prevent the recurrence of those events, Government last November released the proposed changes to RoPA for public consultation before the document is finalised and taken to the National Assembly.
But Teixeira disclosed that the responses has not been forthcoming as anticipated.
“We did draft amendments to the Representation of People’s Act and the regulations; they were posted up for public examination. Interestingly enough, there hasn’t been a lot of responses. No response from the APNU/AFC. Maybe it’s understandable but I would still think they would respond,” the Governance Minister posited.
According to Teixeira, so far, submissions were made by one of the small political parties – A New and Unity Guyana (ANUG) – as well as a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and several overseas-based Guyanese individuals and bodies.
In addition, the Minister said that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) also made some recommendations of their own.
“GECOM put in their comments on the reforms and added additional reforms that they felt should be included,” Teixeira stated.
Government had indicated that it wanted to have the widest possible engagement with stakeholders including the various political parties on the proposed amendments to RoPA.
An overhaul of the country’s electoral laws can see the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) facing as much as life imprisonment for committing fraud, while others can similarly face hefty fines and jail time for any related offence.
The draft updated electoral laws also outline a clear process for the request of a recount, including empowering the Chairman of GECOM to grant that request.
Under the proposed laws, the CEO must immediately post the District Tabulation Forms on the Commission’s website as soon as he receives them from the Returning Officers.
Other persons involved in the electoral process can face fines as high as $10 million, and can equally be jailed for life if they breach any provision as outlined in the proposed updated Act.
The immediate former CEO of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield; his Deputy Roxanne Myers, and the Returning Officer for Region Four at last year’s polls, Clairmont Mingo, were terminated last August for their role in efforts to derail democracy at the 2020 elections. The trio is currently before the court on a raft of electoral fraud-related charges.
While the firing of these three senior officials and a general overhaul at the Elections Secretariat were met with much satisfaction by stakeholders, Minister Teixeira contended that much more needs to be done to restore public confidence in GECOM especially as it gears up to hold Local Government Elections (LGE) this year.
“GECOM has an enormous task of building back confidence in them. The public confidence in them is extraordinarily low. So, they – GECOM, as a constitutional body, has to be able to build back trust and confidence of the people going into Local Government Elections, probably this year,” the Governance Minister posited.
However, even as the election body tries to regain public trust, Government-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj is worried about the future of GECOM due to its deeply polarised atmosphere.
He admitted, during an interview with this publication, that GECOM has not acted with the alacrity it should when it comes to issues like a voters’ list. This is considering the fact that Local Government polls, originally scheduled to be held in 2020, have been pushed back twice and is now slated for this year.
In addition to Gunraj, the other PPP-nominated Commissioners at GECOM are Bibi Shadick and Manoj Narayan. Meanwhile, the Opposition-nominated Commissioners are Charles Corbin, Vincent Alexander and Desmond Trotman.
The APNU/AFC side of the Commission has a well-established record of walking out of meetings during discussions on critical matters, or not even showing up. This publication reported these occurrences last year, during discussions on filling important vacancies at GECOM.
According to Gunraj, he wonders about the future of the Commission.
“It is no secret that the Commission is now a fractured body. When I went to the Commission, you could expect meaningful discussion and agreement. Unfortunately, you cannot even expect meaningful discussions, much less agreements. And sometimes I wonder about the Commission’s future in light of some of the postures of the Commission,” he said.
Only recently, GECOM announced that it will commence Continuous Registration, a necessary process for updating the List of Electors and paving the way for the holding of LGE, on March 7 and this will run until May 29, 2022.
GECOM has 28 permanent registration offices located in all of the ten administrative regions that will be engaged in the registration exercises.
Over $750 million has been set aside in Budget 2022 for the preparation to be undertaken by GECOM for the hosting of LGE this year. This money is part of an overall $4.1 billion allocation to GECOM in Budget 2022, and was examined and approved by the National Assembly during its consideration of the 2022 Budget Estimates.
At the last LGE in November 2018, the then PPP/C Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This followed the holding of the LGE in 2016, during which the PPP/C also claimed the majority of the LAAs.
