Dear Editor,
174,000 persons registered by GECOM shouted the Stabroek News headline, using figures provided by Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward. Factually, however, I can show not a single person has as yet been registered; we are being intentionally misled by persons possibly engaged in a conspiracy to subvert our Constitution and our democratic institutions and processes.
GECOM is currently engaged in a field exercise gathering data for the creation of a new National Register of Registrants DataBase (NRRDB), this is not an update of the existing NRRDB and as such not a single person has as yet had their datasheet processed as that portion of the House-to-House (H2H) work-plan has not yet begun. At this point, it may be instructive to explain the steps needed towards the creation of a new NRRDB. The GECOM work-plan lists 41 steps, for brevity I shall start with number 24: OPS –Commence and Conduct H-t-H Registration (120 days) this activity concludes on the 29th September 2019. Following Item 24, major Items are 30: VRD/ITD –Produce draft consolidated list of transactions encoded for checking and verification (internal use only) (22nd October) Items 31-37 involve cropping fingerprints and sending overseas for cross-matching, processes for dealing with conflicts identified, etc. (3rd December) Items 38-40 deal with removal of duplicates identified and deceased persons from the Register (16th Dec) and on the 18th December a new NRRDB is created. At that point, 80 days after the current field exercise can there be a claim that ‘persons have been registered’, to do so before is deceptive.
Immediately after the passage of the No-Confidence Motion, Chief Election Officer Lowenfield convened emergency meetings of the GECOM Secretariat on the 23rd December, cognizant of the responsibilities to provide General and Regional Elections within the three-month timeframe specified by our Constitution. On the 27th December, GECOM PRO Yolanda Ward said “With this no-confidence motion, it means once the date is set, it will be held… it is our constitutional mandate to conduct the General and Regional Elections and Local Government Elections (LGEs) whenever they are constitutionally due; so whether it is in the 90 days then it is GECOM’s responsibility to conduct elections”.
A full Commission of Inquiry must be conducted in the near future to determine why: 1. The GECOM Secretariat did not submit a work-plan for General and Regional Elections until 22nd Jan 2019, 32 days after the passage of the No-confidence motion. 2. The work-plan for Elections was for 148 days, far beyond the 90 days stipulated by the Constitution (the 90-day timeframe was arrived at after consultation with GECOM as to requirements during the Constitutional reform process, it is not arbitrary). 3. The work-plan submitted also contained an alternative 290-day plan that included H2H registration and creation of a new NRRDB. This act has led inevitably to an unstable nation and must be explained fully. 4. APNU+AFC used judicial challenges to the No-confidence motion to delay the elections, this should not have affected GECOM’s preparations, however, the Secretariat stood idly by for months awaiting ‘direction’ from the Commission. 5. CEO Lowenfield began an H2H exercise based on an order from GECOM Chairman James Patterson that was fortuitously provisioned with dates that allowed Patterson to make the order while still Chairman and that encompassed the 48-day delay in readiness of GECOM to begin the H2H.6. The proceeding with H2H despite the absence of agreement of all parliamentary political parties as is the norm. 7. The absence of Political party scrutineers on GECOM data gathering teams. (The data forms have a provision for the signature of party scrutineers) this may serve as the basis for a legal challenge to the veracity of the data gathered during this costly exercise. 8. CEO Lowenfield has stated that he is running two concurrent exercises, an H2H and preparations for Elections, Lowenfield must know his actions are causing great uncertainty and instability in the nation, so why is he (Lowenfield) persisting? These and other questions require answers.
Of interest is the historical data of the number of new Registrants added to the NRRDB during the last four Claims and Objections periods. Do the numbers of new Registrants garnered from these exercises justify the discarding of the present NRRDB? Is the present NRRDB being used as a basis for the current H2H? Are more persons being enfranchised or disenfranchised by H2H?
Guyana may be undergoing a period of disregard for Rule of Law and our Constitution is being subverted, but Time being longer than Twine, I am confident that we will one day return to the status as a nation of laws, and this COI will be held. There should be dire consequences for anyone found complicit in any conspiracy to subvert our laws.
Yours faithfully,
Robin Singh
