Feedback from participants on electoral reform consultations positive – Min Teixeira

– as Norton defends Opposition walking out of consultations

Contrary to reports from the Opposition, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, is maintaining that the feedback from those who participated in the recent consultations on electoral reforms was generally positive.
Last week, the Government held consultations on draft amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act (ROPA). During the consultations, Opposition members walked out. They subsequently criticised the consultations and how much time was allowed for participants to air their grievances.

In a statement on Monday, Minister Teixeira defended the exercise and noted that, contrary to reports from the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), she only spoke for seven minutes at the start of the consultations. She also noted that Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who gave an overview of the bill, spoke for a little over one hour.
“The AFC forgets that in this electronic age, records of the time are captured. First of all, I spoke for seven minutes in my opening; the Attorney General was asked to do an overview of the draft laws and rationale behind the amendments, he spoke for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After this, he began the examination of the draft amendments to the acts,” she explained.

“We then took a break at 2:50 pm and concluded after 5:00pm The APNU/AFC representatives: Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, Mr. Roysdale Forde and Ms. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, walked out only one hour after the consultation began,” Teixeira explained.
The time Teixeira and Nandlall initially spoke for left over two hours, during which a number of the participants posed questions and concerns, and made recommendations for the bill. In fact, Teixeira noted that the feedback from participants regarding the consultations was largely positive.
“The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance is pleased to have hosted this consultation, which included representatives of faith-based organisations, political parties, Private Sector and other civil society organisations and actors,” the Minister said.
“Contrary to the response by the AFC, the feedback received from the consultation participants was especially positive, as they noted to have found the session informative and enlightening, and they appreciated being invited and included in the ongoing electoral reform process,” the Minister further said.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton defended the Opposition representatives’ decision to walk out of the consultations. He repeated what the AFC had said, that enough time was not given to participants.

“When you get to the actual consultations, if you set up a three-hour consultation with you claim over 100 people, and two Ministers talk for two hours in a 90-minute session, there is little to no scope for you to become involved in meaningful discussions,” Norton said.
“And when it was recognised by the Opposition team that (they) were bent on talking all the time, our delegation left, and correctly so,” Norton said, claiming that they have been meeting with stakeholders and providing their position on electoral reform.
The consultation, which was live-streamed from the Arthur Chung Conference Center, in fact, lasted for four hours. The consultation that was undertaken has been described as an integral element of the Government of Guyana’s commitment to implement a consultative, inclusive and participatory process regarding electoral reform.
The Ministry had said in a previous statement that the stakeholder consultation formed part of a continuous consultative process, which began on November 6, 2021 when the Ministry published the draft RoPA (Amendment) Bill on its social media pages.
As such, the public was invited to peruse the draft documents and submit feedback to the Ministry within six weeks. However, after requests for extensions, the Ministry accommodated submissions of feedback well into 2022.
Recommendations were received from a variety of stakeholders, including civil society actors, the Guyana Elections Commission, some political parties, and interested individuals and organisations. These recommendations were consolidated and provided to the Attorney General, who, in May 2022, facilitated in-person meetings with the respondents.
Updated versions of the RoPA Bill and Regulations have been made available once again, and the new draft amendments to the National Registration Act have also been made accessible for public perusal via a link published on the Ministry’s Facebook pages. To this end, 157 organisations were invited to the consultation on October 25.
These organisations represent a broad cross-section of society, including political parties; constitutional bodies; civil society organisations in the labour movement; Private Sector, faith-based, youth, women, LGBTQ, ethnic/cultural, health and rehabilitation organisations; and other civil society actors.