GECOM must respect Guyana’s Constitution, laws to administer free and fair elections

Dear Editor,
There are measured movements in the right direction for which stakeholders should recognise Justice retired Madam Claudette Singh as the new Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). While this is evident, there exists increasing national concerns and civil intolerance regarding the slow and exhaustive pace of these achievements. Against the backdrop of persistently deviant approaches by the APNU/AFC Commissioners to effect delays, the Chairperson must immediately take further decisive actions to reverse the suggestive unnecessary yielding.
The facts reveal that more than 12 months have passed since the successful passing of the No-Confidence Motion and Mr Granger’s direct and indirect contamination of the internal mechanism at GECOM deserves no empathy. The forward movements, therefore, must be in swift adherence to the laws. The pellucid guidelines are enshrined in the existing legislation, have established the framework and expectations of every citizen and political party. Precedence of the procedure and legal compliance exist which has worked transparently that must be upheld and procedural imperatives followed.
Regarding the upcoming elections preparations, the laws clearly recognise that GECOM must produce and use a Preliminary List of Voters (PLV) as the basis for adjustments in a followed period of Claims and Objections (C&Os). The process of making adjustments must allow for included verification by way of scrutiny exercised through the presence and acknowledgement of political party scrutineers.
After the C&Os, it is expected that GECOM will produce from the adjustments to the PLV, a Revised List of Electors (RLE) that must be further scrutinised by the public and particularly the political parties. After careful examination of the RLE to ensure the qualification of additions or changes, the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) must take to the Commission the Official List of Electors (OLE) for agreement prior to distributing to the political parties. These contesting parties must use the OLE to solicit “backers” for their selected list of candidates contesting the National and Regional Elections.
The negative position realised from the foregoing so far stems from the David Granger impact, and his demonstrated excessive constitutional abuse in appointing the clearly unfit James Patterson as Chairman of GECOM. With the exception of the recent actions by the new Chairperson, the organisation adopted a default position of deliberate delay and demonstrated the intent to postpone the elections that were constitutionally due since March 21, 2019.
This cabal has created and advanced all sorts of procrastinating approaches, under a clearly subservient CEO Keith Lowenfield. In essence, under the clearly unfit and unilaterally appointed James Patterson, serious manipulation took place with not only the farcical backdated House-to-House (H2H) approval but also the employment of staff and for the four years plus the APNU/AFC is in Government lavishly spending billions of dollars without audit.
After the Caribbean Court of Justice removed the unfit Patterson from Office, local and international intervention prevailed before Mr Granger appointed the Honourable Retired Justice Claudette Singh as Chairperson of GECOM. From the inception, she committed to following the rule of law and the Constitution. She took actions to stop the Lowenfield wickedly imposed H2H and ruled in favour of the Claims and Objections process, much to the dissent of many on the Government side. This process initiated and completed in an acceptable manner, with the PNC and PPP/C scrutineers working with GECOM staff and only waiting for the RLE.
GECOM reported that during the truncated the unverified H2H Registration was catapulted on the people, three hundred and seventy thousand persons were registered. Information from alternative sources as well as from conducted investigations revealed that the Registration process was significantly flawed and defective due to a number of issues.
The enumerators were not properly trained which was evident in the abuse to residents on many occasions. They were provided with cheap and poor quality ink pads to do the fingerprinting and this resulted in serious smudging. Worst of all, GECOM bought cheap cameras and did not train the enumerators on how to use the cameras. As a result, after two months, not a single person who registered or applied for ID cards has received their ID cards.
While Guyanese welcome the decision by GECOM to do the field verification of the 20,556 names. It is of note that the truncated H2H Registration process was not verified and evidence of skulduggery justifies the need to check since no probable or reasonable argument can be put forward regarding how or why dead persons were registered. More seriously, how older persons who voted at many elections are now registered as new registrants.
Guyanese are asking why 16,369 names cannot be verified and why 4000 persons on the Preliminary List of Electors were found to be duplicates so far. It is my view that the discrepancies observed during the H2H Registration were deliberate and caused by poor planning and wickedness. It is difficult for Guyanese to follow Vincent Alexander’s failed argument that the field verification process is useless. Then why did he call for a sample survey? Justice Singh must now demonstrate intolerance to these flimsy positions.
I take the opportunity to wish all readers warm Christmas greetings and a successful new year.

Sincerely,
Neil Kumar