Over a week after the conclusion of Local Government Elections (LGE) Opposition Commissioner, Vincent Alexander is calling on GECOM, to review the entire election.
“I will call for a review of the whole process,” Alexander said during an interview with Stabroek News.
Alexander contended that it is standard operating procedure (SOP) and intends to see what needs to be addressed for future elections.
“In any exercise, there must be an evaluation after to see what went well, to see if it didn’t go well, and to see how it can be fixed for the future. So, an evaluation is par for the course. It is standard operating procedure,” Alexander noted. This also comes in the backdrop of Alexander leveling several allegations at the elections body, such as, the disenfranchising of voters from voting on Election Day and the changes made to 37 constituency boundaries. Other allegations include having a list of voters that may have not been right and the hiring of high level staff before the elections.
Back in November, Alexander refused to support the election on the grounds that a report of the 2020 general and regional elections was never produced and he maintained that excuses were given for it not to be done. However, this time around, Alexander said that there should be no excuses for a review not to be done.
“In 2020, a review was not done immediately after the election because it being in the court and all that. Subsequent to the court matters, I called for a review and it was not done. The Chairwoman did not support the call for a review and their argument was that these matters were in the court and all that, and I argued that the review that I was calling for was not seeking to find people culpable of anything, but I was just trying to determine the flaws in GECOM’s System that needed to be protected for future elections. She maintained that there should be no review because the issues that may arise are petition issues; I don’t agree her. Even if petition issues were raised there is a difference between saying what went wrong, as opposed to saying who did this wrong,” Alexander clarified.
When asked as to what he would like to be see in the review he said that he expects everything. “It would be related to the election and what occurred or what did not occur during the elections.” Whether it’s done or not, he noted that he is prepared to comment on the issue but for now he is holding his thoughts on the matter.
“When the evaluation is done, I’ll be prepared to speak publicly or if the evaluation is not done, I’ll also be prepared to speak publicly but I prefer to hold my hands subject to the evaluation.” Meanwhile, Government-appointed Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, said that while there is a protocol to a have a report on the elections done, there is no protocol to have a full review of the process.
“I am very sure that or what I at least expect is a report on the Election to be provided by the CEO (Chief Election Officer) and once we have that report then the Commission will have to determine the next steps in so far how they want to treat with it and so on. However, I hasten to add that this is the fifth election that I have participated in at GECOM and I could say without fear of contradiction for sure up to the present time the first election on which I participated that is to say the 2015 election, I have never seen a report thereof,” Gunraj explained. There is no such process for a review and Gunraj maintains that he does not support one.
