Dear Editor,
I refer to a letter from Public Relations Officer Vishnu Persaud of Gecom titled ‘Gecom followed the law in the case of the recounts requested in Districts 3 and 4 by the PPP/C‘ (SN, December 24). A careful reading of that correspondence would reveal the troubled nature of Gecom and for that reason Gecom as it now stands, should be completely and fundamentally overhauled. That letter is riddled with barefaced denials and deliberate attempts to mislead.
The letter states, “Gecom was never in possession of any money at any time to share out to any political party. To say that Gecom shared out a hundred million dollars of scrutineer money to the PNC (and $150M to the PPP/C) and decided against the AFC is an outright lie…”
Every schoolboy in Guyana knows that Gecom has no money. All its funds come from the Treasury as requested by Gecom. It was Gecom that agreed to pay scrutineer money for national registration. The Ministry of Finance dished out the money and the PPP and PNC collected their funds on Gecom’s vouchers. Is this the best argument Gecom can muster? How foolish. So UG, the Police Force, the army, etc, do not have money to pay anyone. It comes from the Ministry of Finance. With such logic, no wonder the 2011 election was administered so terribly.
I adhere most tempestuously to another pint of mine, namely, the seat disputed by the AFC in 2006 from Region 10. Gecom’s position was that it could not have pronounced on the assignment of the seats after the declaration of the results and advised that the courts had to decide on the issue.
I don’t want to be educated by Gecom because it has to educate its senior officials first. The SOPs to which the political parties are entitled were only given to them after the Private Sector Commis-sion tsars so advised Dr Surujbally and Mr Boodhoo. Yet this body wants to educate me.
In closing, I think Dr Surujbally and Mr Boodhoo know that time has passed on. The Carter-structured Gecom of 1992 has outlived its usefulness. Surujbally and Boodhoo should allow time to move on and let Guyana move with the times. By the way, I hope readers know that Mr Surujbally’s salary at Gecom is one of the highest for a public servant in Guyana
Yours faithfully,
Frederick Kissoon
