The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is currently engaged in critical discussions regarding the use of biometrics for the upcoming General and Regional Elections scheduled for 2025.
Speaking with this publication , People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Commissioner, Clement Rohee, shared that the commission is currently examining a feasibility study on digital fingerprint capture, however he emphasised the importance of ensuring that any proposed measures align with the constitution.
“There’s a study that has been done. We have to examine that in order to determine the practicality. A feasibility study was done for the producing of digital fingerprint capture so we are now going to be discussing that as a major issue in order to determine if we can and to what extent we could have this matter considered as something within the meaning of the constitution,” Rohee noted.
In Guyana there remains significant concern about the introduction and implementation of any voter stipulations that could possibly disenfranchise voters, and potentially lead to legal challenges reminiscent of the 1998 Elections Petition case brought by Esther Pereira. That case resulted in the nullification of the 1997 elections due to constitutional violations.
Rohee stressed the need for GECOM to operate within constitutional boundaries, ensuring that any, necessary amendments and laws would need to be enacted to facilitate any biometric implementation are done
“Anything we do can only do so in keeping with what the constitution says and the Representation of the People Act provides for. If these things are not there then we have to ensure that the necessary amendments and laws are passed in order for it to happen. That’s only if there’s an agreement at GECOM for that to happen,” Rohee said.
In August, GECOM’s spokeswoman Yolanda Ward had said that in preparation for the 2025 General and Regional elections, GECOM is considering proposals for installing cameras in polling stations and a biometrics feasibility study to enhance safeguards against misconduct.
Ward was at the time responding to the matter raised by the Alliance For Change (AFC) regarding election safeguards. AFC, which was previously part of APNU that had attempted to rig the 2020 National and Regional election, has been calling for biometrics such as fingerprints to be implemented by GECOM for the next elections.
However, GECOM warned that they cannot make such a significant change to electoral procedure unless there is legislation to back it up. Indeed, the addition of ID cards in the 1997 elections, was one of the grounds on which the validity of the entire election was overturned in court and even that electoral change came from an act of parliament.
“Whereas this call from the AFC is nothing new, it is necessary for the Commission to remind all political stakeholders and by extension the general public that (GECOM Chairperson) Justice of Appeal (Ret’d) Claudette Singh has repeatedly emphasised that the Commission’s operations are guided by the laws of Guyana,” GECOM had explained.
