Chaos at preparation for Disciplined Services’ voting (Pt 1)

Dear Editor,
The recent chaotic Nominations Day developments, and many other muddled preparatory activities at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), give testimony to the conundrum which, to a large extent, is self-inflicting, or perhaps deliberate.
It is very clear that many of the problems are strongly related to the partisan employment approaches, and perhaps deficient staff training practices. The selection and appointment of misfits to perform key roles seem to be strongly driven by the particular category of persons being paid, rather than having a structured and evaluated approach to meet the acceptable level of requirements.
Too many critical activities of GECOM are now being handled as if they were a first-trial run with a comedy of errors. The result is an organisation working like a cork in the ocean; uncharted in responding to the tidal influences and pressure as it floats along, with no convincing purpose of balance in undertaking the serious task of holding free and fair Local Government Elections in November.
One such ongoing activity is being supervised by Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers, who seems not to have a clue about what is required regarding the preparation for the enveloping of ballots for members of the Disciplined Services (Army, Police and Prison) who are scheduled to vote on D-Day, November 2, 2018.
The Chairman’s choice of Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers, had no answer, as she ‘flipped’ on Nominations Day. This was in relation to key decisions and directions when called upon by Returning Officers and several persons in the absence of the forever disappearing CEO, Keith Lowenfield.
Even the cursory observer could note that Ms Myers’s recent swearing in was after the Nominations Day activity, in which it seemed that she was delegated pivotal responsibilities. In such a circumstance, the situation speaks to the false level of readiness of GECOM, conveyed by Chairman Patterson. It also establishes that while the CEO was absent, there was also no substantive DCEO on the day of one of the most critical elections events being administered by GECOM.
The activity in preparation for D-Day on November 2, 2018 was being witnessed by scrutineers from political parties in response to invitations and in keeping with the procedures. Along with fellow People’s Progressive Party Member of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj, we turned up at GECOM Office on Monday, 23rd October, 2018 at 13:30h to scrutinise the preparations for the Disciplined Services’ voting. From the very beginning, we could tell that our sojourn at this activity would be lengthy and uncomfortable. The sequence of events which followed highlighted an amazing level of lack of coordination, and confirmed that we were in for a very long haul.
It was immediately observed that we were the only two persons present to observe the process, and the ‘skids’ were not packed in any specific order. It soon became clear that there was no packing list for the containing skids, and our requests for the expected work schedule was futile. We were told that they will open all the ‘skids’, and we must make note of the ‘seal numbers’.
It took some level of persisting queries before Myers told us that after the ‘skids’ are opened, the ‘Ballot’ papers for the Discipline Services voters on D-Day will be extracted and enveloped. It was quite amazing that we requested the list of the required ‘ballot’ papers as per constituency and the DCEO did not know what we were asking for. Fortunately, Personal Assistant to the Chief Elections Officer, Duarte Hetsberger, was present to provide advice, and we were subsequently provided with the list after some time spent waiting.
We then proceeded to the container to facilitate the opening of the ‘skids’, after being advised that the Internal Auditor would be calling out the specifics of each ‘skid’. As we approached the container, it was observed that there was no light to facilitate the work in the 40-foot container. Worse yet, the unfriendly DCEO refused to allow the scrutineers to enter the container as part of the verification process. There was total confusion, as we started with ‘skid’ 2 and then we went on to ‘skid’ 3, then ‘skid’ 9. We were then told that we were opening ‘skid’ 11, which had ‘tender’ ballots.
The haphazard checking of the ‘skids’ continued until there was a long break, as the staff struggled without any acceptable lighting in the container. There was total chaos of taunting and laughing at this incompetent preparation for such a simple and straightforward activity.

Sincerely,
Neil Kumar