Finding no serious problem with the May 11th 2015 general elections or the final outcome, the Organisation of American States (OAS) Election Observer Mission (EOM) yesterday issued a series of recommendations to speed up the transmission of results here and equitable access to the media among other areas.
Presenting the report to the OAS in Washington, USA, the Head of the Mission Lisa Shoman listed a series of recommendations.
Electoral Campaign
She said that while the Mission recognizes the Guyana Elections Commissio’sn (GECOM’s) efforts to promote a peaceful atmosphere by sponsoring the signing of a Code of Conduct by all political parties, the delay in signing the Code and the lack of enforcement mechanisms stopped it from having any significant impact on the overall campaign.
“The OAS/EOM found the strident tone of the political debate leading up to Election Day, most regrettable, and therefore strongly recommends the introduction of a legal framework that promotes the celebration of elections based on positive political platforms that educate and benefit the Guyanese people in making choices, avoids aggressive personal and partisan rhetoric, and contains rapid and concrete sanctions for violating the same”, the OAS said.
The report named no one. Former President Bharrat Jagdeo had been roundly criticized during the elections for inflammatory and race-based talk. He is now facing a private criminal charge over one of his speeches during the campaign.
Results Transmission
On the vexed question of the transmission of results, the OAS said that while the process in Guyana contains careful safeguards in order to boost the veracity and credibility of electoral results, the manual nature of the process is time-consuming and of necessity labour intensive. “Given the geographical and logistical challenges of Guyana, the Mission encourages GECOM to implement, as soon as possible a system of electronic tabulation of preliminary results for national elections. An alternative system of communication between presiding officers, returning officers and the GECOM secretariat would, at least promote a more timely provision of results and serve to (defuse) potential public tensions in future electoral processes”, the OAS EOM said.
The Mission noted that GECOM’s official website did not provide any timely information on the delivery of results during the tabulation and processing of the votes.
“Considering that GECOM is the only source for official results, the Mission recommends with some urgency, the development of an updated ICT strategy for GECOM and in particular its website, including historical information and resources regarding the registration process, civic education and processing of the election”, the EOM report said.
Media Access
Recognizing the work done by the Media Monitoring Unit of GECOM in highlighting the disparities in media coverage during the political campaign, the Mission recommended that consideration be given to regulations that promote, at all times, and not only during electoral periods, equitable access to all contenders of the political and electoral processes.
Electoral Education
The Mission called on the electoral authorities, political parties and all other relevant stakeholders to carry out a continuous civic education programme to promote political participation and democratic values in Guyana before, after and beyond elections.
List of electors
The OAS EOM noted that the voter registration process in Guyana benefits from the safeguards of house-to-house verification in the presence of party scrutineers as well as the pre-electoral claims and objections process.
“Nonetheless, the implementation of more robust procedures for periodic cleansing of the national voters list to remove deceased persons; and that ensures …ongoing updates of the voter registry would allow for a voter’s list that more accurately reflects the current Guyanese electorate”, the mission said.
Political financing
The OAS EOM said that while a legal framework for political financing already exists, it is necessary to revise and modernize aspects of the law which are obsolete and allow violations and non-compliance with the few existing sanctions. Further, in order to promote equity in the electoral process, the Mission recommended the consideration of some form of state funding for political parties.
Gender
The Mission congratulated the 13 (35.14%) newly elected women parliamentarians for their victory in the elections and praised the significant presence of women throughout the electoral process as poll workers, party agents and candidates. It however called on all political parties and institutions to increase their efforts to further effectively promote the active participation and empowerment of women in public life.
“In particular, parties must make some effort to ensure an equitable participation of women when making choices from the lists after electoral victory”, the mission said.
Electoral Organization
To avoid long lines of voters waiting to cast their ballots in the future, the Mission suggested the introduction of a standardized process that will allow the simultaneous verification of at least two or three additional voters while an elector is casting his/her ballot.
Prior to yesterday’s OAS EOM report, the Carter Center had also issued a report which gave a clean bill of health to the elections. The opposition PPP/C is the only major election stakeholder claiming that there was major fraud in the election.
