Dear Editor,
The Carter Center Report entitled “Observing Guyana’s Electoral Process, 1990-1992” and published on its website is extremely important and instructive as the debate and battle over the house to house registration exercise rages. Coming out of the report (pages 19-27) the following points are important to note vis a vis house to house registration and the delay in holding an election:
All political sides agreed to a new house to house registration process.
Consequently, Parliament passed a Constitutional amendment extending the life of Parliament and government beyond the date of its scheduled dissolution (February 2nd 1991) but not to exceed Sept. 30th 1991.
After the House to House registration exercise and the Preliminary Voters List was produced and checked for accuracy, it was discovered that there were “a large number of duplicate names and more than 50,000 eligible voters missing from the list”.
It was not until Sept 28th, 1991 – just two days before the deadline to dissolve Parliament – that the Elections Commission produced a voters list for elections. This was three months later than the date that Ronald Jacobs, the Commissioner for national registration, had promised.
Upon the Elections Commission notifying the President that the list was produced, President Hoyte dissolved Parliament for elections to be held in three months (by Dec 28th, 1991).
An in-house computer analysis of the voters list found an error rate of 35% but the list was nonetheless published with the hope that the Claims and Objections exercise would be sufficient to rectify the voters list.
With the prospect of a publicly announced December 16th, 1991, election, the Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government sent a delegation led by former Costa Rican President Rodrigo Carazo and conducted an exhaustive evaluation of the voters list and concluded that the list was “seriously flawed” with a very high rate of errors.
Despite all efforts by the Elections Commission to rectify the voters list for the scheduled December 1991 election, Rudy Collins, the Chairman of the Elections Commission wrote to President Hoyte on the 20th November, 1991 to advise that the final list of electors would not be ready in order to meet a December 1991 election.
President Hoyte on the 28th November, 1991, announced the postponement of elections and recalled Parliament on the 3rd December, 1991, to extend the life of Parliament and government until a new final voters list was completed but not later than the 30th Sept. 1992.
From January 1992 to May 1992 the Elections Commission was engaged in the process of producing a new list. Even after the list was completed, there remained several problems with the list, including a large number of names that had incorrect ID numbers or none whatsoever, and a large number of names placed in incorrect electoral divisions. These problems took several additional months to correct.
On the 10th August, 1992, the Elections Commission Chairman informed President Hoyte that the Final List of electors was completed and on Aug 29th 1992, President Hoyte dissolved Parliament for elections to be held on Oct 5th 1992.
This experience with house to house registration has historically shown that it is a recipe for protracted delay and in light of the three-month Constitutional requirement for an election upon the successful passage of a no confidence motion and the Caribbean Court of Justice ruling that all (including GECOM) are bound by the provisions of the Constitution, the house to house registration exercise should not be pursued.
Yours faithfully,
Charles S. Ramson
