About 50 gaps plugged in ROPA to ensure electoral security – Jagdeo

Since the glaring attempts to steal the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, the PPP/C Government has plugged over 50 gaps that existed in the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), to have a secure system that cannot be abused.
This is according to Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, in light of the recent report released by the EU Election Follow-up Mission (EU EFM) which commended the Government for implementing some of the priority recommendations that were made following the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, to enhance and strengthen the local electoral system.
Deployed to assess Guyana’s progress towards electoral reform, the team was quoted as stating that two of the priority recommendations were implemented in full, and this had been through the adoption of the Representation of People (Amendment) Act and the National Registration (Amendment) Act.
However, the Vice President sought to clarify that many gaps which were not in the recommendations were addressed by the Ali-led administration upon their assumption to office.
“There were numerous – in fact countless – other gaps that were not part of their recommendations that we plugged in the Representation of the People’s Act. Although they didn’t recommend them, there are several other things that we thought [former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield] abused to create uncertainties in the electoral process, and we were determined to fix those.”
The Vice President further stated, “Not just the two things they were commending us for doing in the Act, which is publishing the Statements of Poll and making clear the process in which the declarations have to be done…There are about 50 things that could have been abused that we have plugged in the Representation of the People Act.”
An example is that, initially, the establishment of polling stations was at the discretion of the CEO. In the amendment, this has been fixed so that polling places are located within certain proximity along with the population count of that area being taken into consideration.
Jagdeo reminded that the EU played an important role in trying to ‘stave off’ attempts to steal the elections.
In total, the 2020 EU Observation Mission comprised 26 recommendations in its final report on diverse aspects of the elections, including the legal framework, election administration, the campaign and campaign financing, the media and social media, and electoral dispute resolution. Of these recommendations, eight had been identified as a priority.

Campaign financing
Meanwhile, Jagdeo also responded to the Observer Mission’s position of the two main contestants having significant funding while the small parties lack the capacity to run a nationwide campaign.
“Some of the smaller parties couldn’t even muster 2000 votes. How could you compare campaign finance with the major parties that have 200,000 supporters? It’s natural that they will run bigger campaigns. Our job in political parties is not to ensure that every single party has equal financing. You have to raise financing on the basis of your policy-making and whether people find you attractive or not.”
However, he did share the concern that ‘big money’ could alter the results of elections. This is one of the reasons towards committing to exploring campaign financing reform – a factor that is in the PPP/C’s manifesto.
Jagdeo, who is also the General Secretary of the leading People’s Progressive Party (PPP), also contended that the issue of people being victimized for supporting a specific party is also another reality that must be taken into account.
The Follow-up Mission will be presenting its final report on Guyana’s progress in implementing electoral reform in the coming months. This is in an effort to strengthen the local electoral system ahead of the next General and Regional Elections due in 2025.
Meanwhile, Local Government Elections are slated for June 12.