Civil society coalition Facing the Future (FtF) says in sharp contrast with pre-elections preparations, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had performed woefully in counting less than half-a-million votes, drawing severe criticism from contending political parties and inducing tension across the nation.
In a press release, the group said, “Inordinate delays in revealing the results led to constant appeals for calm and peace, all played out before observers gathered from around the world.” The association said GECOM’s performance is both embarrassing and provocative, deserving of censure while in contrast the population’s behaviour, both in the run-up to elections “and when faced with the snail’s pace, ponderous explanations, tedious presentation of results, and lack of decisiveness of GECOM, all of which contributed to public frustration,” has been admirable.
The group also said despite its motto of “not compromising efficiency on the altar of expediency,” GECOM has compromised efficiency by adopting the least line of resistance to challenges by delaying verification procedures until the Statement of Polls (SoP) were physically delivered to its offices; acceding to demands for re-count before the preliminary count was completed; and allowing misleading statistics to be projected for one and a half days on the State TV channel before correcting them.
According to the coalition, GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally appears to have seen the involvement of commissioners scrutinising and initialling every SoP compatible with “not compromising efficiency.” However, this exercise, besides substantially prolonging the process, it said, could also be an example of ways in which commissioners usurp the role of technical personnel, in contravention of Article 161B of the Guyana Constitution which states that “the role of political parties and their nominees in the conduct of elections by the Elections Commission shall be limited to their participation in determining policy, monitoring the electoral process and the conduct of the election, but does not include active management of the electoral process.”
FtF contends that elsewhere in the English-speaking Caribbean elections commissioners only get involved when issues of fraud or other illegalities arise. “Disputes involving re-counts, for example, are resolved by Returning Officers at the place of poll,” it said, noting that this is the procedure foreseen by Article 88 of the Guyana Representation of the Peoples Act which states that “A duly appointed candidate, or counting agent present when the counting or any recount of votes is completed, may request the returning officer to have the votes recounted, or again recounted: but the returning officer may refuse such a request if in his opinion it is unreasonable.”
The grouping also questioned why the request was allowed by one candidate for recounts at multiple stations when the law clearly requires that the person demanding the recount being present at the first count, noting that “their influence on the current performance of GECOM cannot be entirely ignored.”
FtF said that its views are supported only by coalition members Amerindian Peoples Association, Commonground, Guyana Council of Churches, Guyana Human Rights Association, Guyana Society for the Blind, Rights of the Children, Red Thread and Vilvoorden Women’s Organization, as due to the urgency of its statement, the other members were unable to covey their agreement.
