Govt finalising RoPA amendments to table in National Assembly – VP Jagdeo

– says recommendations rec’d being considered in redrafting legislation

Public recommendations that were submitted on the proposed amendments to the Representation of People Act (RoPA) are being considered as the Government moves to finalise the draft legislation for tabling in the National Assembly.
This is according to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo during a press conference on Friday, where he updated reporters on his meeting with United States Deputy Assistant Secretary for Caribbean Affairs and Haiti, Barbara Feinstein, who was in Guyana on a three-day visit.

Among the issues raised during that engagement is electoral reforms and the Vice President reiterated Guyana’s commitment to working with stakeholders including all political parties to strengthen the laws surrounding the conduct of elections in order to remove discretion and the room for capricious behaviour by any elected official.
With the proposed recommendations to RoPA being out for public review some five months now, Jagdeo disclosed that several recommendations were received.
“We’re in the process of looking through those recommendations, redrafting the legislation to be tabled hopefully at the next sitting of the Parliament and that legislation will be debated there. That would help to determine, to a large extent, transparency around the conduct of the elections and tabulation of the results, and announcements of the results,” he posited.
VP Jagdeo further indicated to reporters that Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Gail Teixeira was tasked with filtering out these public recommendations clause by clause. They have now gone over to the Attorney General’s Chamber.
“We will have to have the policy discussions to see which of the amendments are useful, that would enhance transparency and accountability on the part of GECOM (Guyana Elections Commission). And trust me, if they will do that and they don’t confer an advantage to any political party, we’re open to inclusion on the final draft. So, we’re going through that process now,” the Vice President contended.
In an effort to prevent the recurrence of the historic March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections that resulted in a five-month political impasse caused by blatant rigging attempts, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government last November released a host of proposed changes to RoPA for public consultation before the document is finalised and taken to the National Assembly.
But Minister Teixeira, whose Ministry was leading the public review, had disclosed earlier this month that the responses were not as forthcoming as anticipated.
“We did draft amendments to the Representation of People’s Act and the regulations; they were posted up for public examination. Interestingly enough, there hasn’t been a lot of responses. No response from the APNU/AFC. Maybe it’s understandable but I would still think they would respond,” the Governance Minister posited.
According to Teixeira, so far, submissions were made by one of the small political parties – A New and Unity Guyana (ANUG) – as well as a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and several overseas-based Guyanese individuals and bodies.
In addition, the Minister said that GECOM also made some recommendations of their own.
“GECOM put in their comments on the reforms and added additional reforms that they felt should be included,” Teixeira stated.
The Government had indicated that it wanted to have the widest possible engagement with stakeholders including the various political parties on the proposed amendments to RoPA.
An overhaul of the country’s electoral laws can see the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) at the Election Commission facing as much as life imprisonment for committing fraud, while others can similarly face hefty fines and jail time for any related offence.
The draft updated electoral laws also outline a clear process for the request of a recount, including empowering the Chairman of GECOM to grant that request.
Under the proposed laws, the CEO must immediately post the District Tabulation Forms on the Commission’s website as soon as he receives them from the Returning Officers.
Other persons involved in the electoral process can face fines as high as $10 million, and can equally be jailed for life if they breach any provision as outlined in the proposed updated Act.
The immediate former CEO of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield; his Deputy Roxanne Myers, and the Returning Officer for Region Four at last year’s polls, Clairmont Mingo, were terminated last August for their role in efforts to derail democracy at the 2020 elections. The trio is also currently before the court on a raft of electoral fraud-related charges.
While the firing of these three senior officials and a general overhaul at the Elections Secretariat were met with much satisfaction by stakeholders, it is widely agreed that much more needs to be done to restore public confidence in GECOM, especially as it gears up to hold Local Government Elections (LGE) this year.
But even as the election body tries to regain public trust, concerns have been expressed about the deeply polarised atmosphere at GECOM, particularly at the level of the seven-member Commission.
Only over a week ago, the Commission headed by Retired Justice Claudette Singh met virtually with the A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Opposition during which the coalition representatives expressed concern about a lack of public confidence in the electoral body.
But Government-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj had pointed out that the coalition refused to talk about the 2020 election fiasco and how those five tumultuous months contributed to the current public perception of GECOM.
“[They said] the public confidence in GECOM is low – something to that effect. So, our response is, ‘look, what caused this?’ GECOM didn’t wake up one morning and have its public confidence erode,” Gunraj told this newspaper.
He further contended, “All of the events which have led to the public confidence in GECOM being eroded must be laid at their feet…when a person from our side attempted to do so, they obviously objected to these facts being pointed out to them and they did, in fact, say, that’s not what they came there for”.
The attempts made to sway the results of the March 2, 2020 elections were in favour of the then APNU/AFC Government. As a consequence, several politicians and party activists – including former PNC Chair Volda Lawrence – are before the courts on related charges.