Dear Editor,
It is Tuesday again and so another statutory meeting of GECOM. Today’ s meeting, oddly, starts on time. It is as if the Chairman, having just recently signed his contract has decided that meetings need to start at 1 pm, 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 Sub-committee 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, 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 realization of how much she does not know about elections management. I do hope that she is a fast learner!
One positive note today 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 no one can say what the C&VE budget is, or if 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 (Monday) and were given the D-day logistical details, which were shared with the Commissioners today. They look very good on paper. Let us hope they translate into smooth movement on D-day. I asked and was assured that the 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, 2018!
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 if he/she is wearing some form of identification issued by GECOM! All Commissioners have IDs. Commissioner Corbin speaks very knowledgeably 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!
There is never a dull moment during a statutory meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission. Today we received an invoice from the Law Firm of Fraser, Housty & Yearwood for work done by Mr Teni Housty during the 64.6 hours he spent representing the CEO in the application for Judicial Review filed in the High Court in Berbice where he made two appearances. The application was dismissed, not on Mr Housty’s affidavit of defence or submissions, but on a police report which was ordered by the Judge who was hearing the matter.
Remember, Mr Ashton Chase S.C. invoiced the GECOM for a total of $950,000 (nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars) for a High Court and Court of Appeal matter? Well, Mr Housty charges an hourly rate of $50,000 (fifty thousand dollars) so his invoice total is $3,230,000 (three million, two hundred and thirty thousand dollars) and this was approved by the Chairman who wrote a note thereon to his secretary to forward it to the Finance subcommittee. We are still to get a final invoice from the CEO’s other lawyer, Mr Roysdale Forde whose initial $2,280,000 (two million, two hundred and eighty thousand dollars) was already approved by the Chairman. Mr Chase S.C. remains unpaid. There is no indication from which line item in the budget these sums are extracted.
There was a very lengthy discussion about the use of proxies by Polling Agents of political parties if they are serving outside of their respective constituencies. The majority decision taken is that the matter be discussed after the LGE and a decision be taken on the issues of proxies and/or Certificates of Employment for Polling Agents, long before GECOM enters the ‘operational mode’ for the 2020 elections.
Our meeting came to an abrupt end at 4.45 pm when the Chairman’s secretary sent in a note to inform that there was a fire risk due to melting and burning of a main electricity supply line attached to the building. The meeting was abruptly adjourned and we were hurriedly ushered out of the building, As I said, never a dull moment!
Until next week.
Yours faithfully,
Bibi Safora Shadick
Commissioner- GECOM
