Jagdeo says GECOM will lose credibility if back-pedalling continues

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo says that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will lose its credibility if it continues to issue orders and statements, and then later retract them.

He was at the time speaking about the recent order sent out by GECOM that persons already on the voters’ list will have to verify their registration, which was subsequently retracted by the Commission.
“The Chairperson [of GECOM, retired Justice Claudette Singh] must now realise that the institution will lose credibility if every single week they issue a press release that is misleading and has to be corrected the next day or orders which have to be subsequently corrected. They not only mislead the entire country, which could lead to undermining of the institution and its standing and its impartiality, but it creates a ton of grief for people across this country,” Jagdeo said at his weekly press conference on Thursday.

He pointed out that persons waste their time trying to comply with orders from GECOM which are then later retracted.
Furthermore, the Opposition Leader went on to talk about the another order issued by GECOM that was retracted as well, that is, the timeline for the Claims and Objections (C&O) exercise changing from 35 days to 49.
“So when we sought to find out how this happened, we discovered that Mr [Keith] Lowenfield, who is the CEO (Chief Elections Officer) – he takes the order from the Commission. He has to give effect to the decisions of the Commission, not the other way around. He is the staff and reports to the Commission – he inserted these two features into the order but we’ve seen a long pattern of this from Mr Lowenfield. So when we sought an explanation, he said ‘Oh, I did it on my own’,” Jagdeo told reporters on Thursday.
According to the Opposition Leader, while the Elections Commission has since reversed this, it was still influenced to extend the timeline to 42 days. The timeline extension was supported by the Government-nominated Commissioners and the GECOM Chair.
He posited that it is worrying that the CEO can change decisions taken by the Commission without any repercussions.
“…the Commission, everyone agreed that it should be 35 days. [So] I found it extremely strange that having made that decision with a vote, that a CEO can come and then change the decision of the [Commission] without consequences. It is time the Commission calls in the Police on some of these individuals or discipline them but you know in that environment that will be a hard stretch. It will never happen because it seem as though he’s doing this with the support of some Commissioners and I found it very strange that the Chairperson having supported that 35 days… changed it to 42 days,” Jagdeo asserted.
Nevertheless, the Opposition Leader noted that he still has confidence in the GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh.
In the same vain, however, he said that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) will continue to be vigilant and guarded against “rouge elements” within the elections body regarding the operations of GECOM going into the March 2020 elections.
The much-anticipated elections date was announced last week by President David Granger but not before mounting pressure from civil society bodies and the Opposition in Guyana, as well as the international community.
In fact, even after he had named the polling date, the Head of State had faced another set of criticism for not issuing a proclamation or dissolving Parliament in accordance with the Constitution.
While earlier this week the President finally issued the proclamation, Jagdeo contended that he did not do the country or any one a favour since he was constitutionally bound to do so. The Opposition Leader’s comment was made in light of commendation pouring in for the Head of State from supporters over the issuance of the proclamation.
“Let us be clear that it was no favour to Guyana. In fact, if we trace how the proclamation was issued, it had to be dragged out of him. It took several acts of protest and also several statements from the international community, threatening the withholding of aid and declaring him unconstitutional to get him to do what he should have done a long time ago; and to get him to do what is legal and constitutional,” Jagdeo stressed.
On this note, Jagdeo reminded that setting the date and issuing the proclamation does not change the status of the caretaker coalition government, which, he said, remains unconstitutional.
In fact, he added that even now, the coalition administration is in “flagrant violation” of the Constitution and the rulings of the courts when the Cabinet, with impunity and almost in an ‘in your face’ kind of way, meets almost every week.
Article 106, which the courts ruled was activated via the December 2018 passage of the No-Confidence Motion against the coalition, states that the Cabinet including the President shall resign and call elections in three months.