Home Letters Never a dull moment during GECOM’s statutory meeting (Pt 1)
Dear Editor,
Another statutory meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission(GECOM). Tuesday starts on time. It is as if the Chairman, having just recently signed his contract has decided that meetings need to start at 13:00h (1:00pm). Imagine, he did not even send his secretary to find out if there was a quorum, as is his usual practice.
Even the CEO and DCEO had to rush to catch up. Fortunately, there is a quorum, and a longer than usual meeting starts on time. Refreshing.
It is election season, so there are many issues to be discussed and the minutes are longer than usual because, at last, the report from the Admin and Finance Subcommittee is included. The minutes are of a meeting held since October 16, 2018, so people’s memories have faded and when, for example, Commissioner Trotman does not like the record of what he is reported to have said, he tries to correct it so that his contribution sounds better.
The CEO is unusually belligerent today (Tuesday), and the DCEO is very much present but speaks only when she is spoken to. I am convinced that she continues to be overwhelmed with the realisation of how much she does not know about elections management. I do hope that she is a fast learner!
One positive note today (Tuesday) was a report by the PR manager who is rolling out the Civic and Voter Education (C&VE) for the LGE. She was able to report on the social media page which seems to be very informative and managed well, but she reported that she pays for infomercials on television. It is my view that LGE education constitutes public service announcements, so by law, they should be broadcast free of cost. I hope Ms Ward follows up with the GNBA, up to today (Tuesday) no one can say what the C&VE budget is, or of there is an identifiable budget for this purpose.
Questions revealed the information that the agencies contracted to prepare the C&VE materials, were taken from a list left on record by the previous officer with no attempt to advertise for the service. Of course, the previous contractors said that the material used in 2016 could not be edited for use this year! What could anyone expect them to say? So completely new material was paid for, and we were assured that from now on, this new material can be reused in future. I, for one, am taking this with a grain of salt. I bet we will hear another excuse for the elections of 2020!
There is no visible activity in the compound. The chaos of last week is over and purportedly ballots have been enveloped for the voting on November 2, 2018, by the 7918 listed members of the Disciplined Services at 81 ballot stations using 63 ballot boxes countrywide.
The political parties’ representatives/chief scrutineers met with the CEO and his team on Tuesday and were given the D-day logistical details, which were shared with the Commissioners on Wednesday. They look very good on paper. Let us hope they translate into smooth movement on D-day. I asked and was assured that eight aircraft and several buses will accommodate GECOM staff as well as party scrutineers with no one left behind. Let us hope that all goes as well as it looks on paper and no party agent will be told that there is no room on the bus or plane! There have been too many such instances in past elections.
I seemed to have aroused a hornets’ nest with my inquiry as to who will be allowed to visit any ballot station on Friday November 2, as well as Monday November 12.
You see the law allows for any listed candidate to do so, but experience has shown that candidates have, in the past been refused entry into ballot and polling stations. The CEO mumbles that persons like the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Scrutineers can visit, but discussions reveal that persons, candidate or otherwise, will only be allowed in of he/she is wearing some form of identification issued by GECOM! All Commissioners have IDs. Commissioner Corbin speaks very knowledgeable about ‘Candidates to the Poll’ so it turns out that the CEO will have to be given a list by the relevant stakeholder of persons who wish to visit ballot/polling stations, so that they can be issued with GECOM accreditation IDs! Equal treatment even for the Leader of the Opposition!
Well I suppose the Ballot Officers/ Presiding Officers can always say that even former Presidents are not exempt from being properly badged and tagged!
Sincerely,
Bibi Safora Shadick
Commissioner –
GECOM