Draft electoral reforms legislation to be circulated next week

…as Govt seeks expeditiously move forward with reforms
…stakeholders given 6-weeks to review document

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is moving apace with the much-anticipated electoral reforms, with President Dr Irfaan Ali disclosing on Friday that the draft legislation is being prepared for circulation as early as next week.

He made this announcement during a press conference when he was asked about the status of the reforms.
“What we are working on is to have the draft legislation circulated sometime next week among all the stakeholders,” President Ali stated.
According to the Head of State, he has already indicated to Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, to make arrangements for input from stakeholders once the document is released.
“We have to have an efficient timeframe on this. I also asked [AG Nandlall] that the circulation be done sometime next week and that six weeks be given for the review and the comments on the draft legislation so that we can expeditiously move forward with this,” the President told reporters.

OAS support
Moreover, he also revealed at Friday’s press conference that during a bilateral engagement back in September, the Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary General, Luis Almagro, had recommitted to supporting Guyana in the electoral reform process and in the strengthening of its democracy.
“[That] was a fundamental theme of discussions with the Secretary General of the OAS, and he reiterated their support and willingness to help Guyana in ensuring that we strengthen our democracy and that whatever help is needed for electoral reform, they are willing to assist,” the Head of State said.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had previously explained that once completed, the draft amendments would be sent to the various political parties including the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Opposition, civil society bodies, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the international community for review. They will also be available for the public to give their input before being finalised and presented in the National Assembly, where they will again be debated by the Government and parliamentary Oppositions.
The need for both electoral and constitutional reforms was underscored following last year’s March 2 General and Regional Elections, which led to a five-month tumultuous impasse before the Irfaan Ali-led PPP/C Government finally took office on August 2, 2020.
There were concerted efforts by the former governing APNU/AFC and some GECOM officials to undermine democracy after elections were held.
It was previously reported that the Representation of the People Act (RoPA), which contains laws specific to the conduct of elections and election-related issues in Guyana, was being ironed out to remove ambiguous provisions and include penalties for persons attempting to carry out electoral fraud.

Rectify deficiencies
In fact, during a June-edition of his weekly programme – Issues In The News – Nandlall had said that the ongoing reform of the electoral laws in Guyana is intended to tighten the legal process and rectify the deficiencies that led to the post-election events in 2020. He had pointed out that these reforms were not intended to create any electoral advantage in favour of any political party.
Instead, the Attorney General had said: “They are all intended to tighten our legal process, to tighten the laws as well as to rectify all the deficiencies we have seen exploited by the likes of [former embattled Returning Officer Clairmont] Mingo and [former Chief Elections Officer Keith] Lowenfield at the last elections. So that in future elections, we ought not to have such reoccurrence. So, all the lacunas, all the gaps, all the ambiguities, all the areas that were cause for concerns and cast doubts in people’s minds, we are going to clarify all of that in the law. So, the law should be very clear.”
Another important component of the reforms would be the hiring process at the Elections Commission, Nandlall had said.
Former CEO Lowenfield, his then Deputy Roxanne Myers and now former RO Mingo, along with other GECOM staff, are currently before the courts facing electoral fraud charges over last year’s polls.
Mingo had heavily inflated the figures from Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district – to give the APNU/AFC coalition a lead over the PPP/C. Meanwhile, Lowenfield, with the support of Myers, presented false figures to the GECOM Commission for declaration as official results of the elections.

However, a 33-day recount showed that the PPP/C won the elections, but it took the firmness of local and regional courts, the resilience of GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh and threats of sanctions from the international community led by the United States before former President David Granger finally stepped aside and allowed President Ali to be sworn in.
While the cases against the trio are pending in the court, Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo have been removed from their posts at GECOM. This was after the three Government-nominated Commissioners filed two motions at the level of the seven-member Elections Commission to have embattled officials dismissed from the Elections Secretariat in light of their actions following the March 2020 polls.
Currently, GECOM is in the process of recruiting a new Chief Elections Officer and already, over 20 candidates including several foreign nationals from as far as Texas, United States, have applied.
According to a list seen by this publication, Dr Kurt Clarke from Texas, Leslie Oliver Harrow from Jamaica, and Eugene Godfrey Petty from St Kitts are the foreign applicants.
Meanwhile, the local applicants include former GECOM CEO, Gocool Boodoo and Vishnu Persaud, a former Deputy CEO, who had applied for another stint in the position in 2018 after his contract had expired but was overlooked in favour of Myers – something which triggered controversy over GECOM’s hiring practices. (G8)