Alexander admits GECOM needs ‘fixing’

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) appointed Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioner, Vincent Alexander has admitted that there are aspects of the electoral body which need ‘fixing,’ but he still believes that the commission has time to discuss readiness for Local Government Elections (LGE).

Those elections are constitutionally due next year, but it was reported that public trust in the commission has been diminished as a result of events that followed the March 2 general and regional elections. The protracted electoral process had “raised eyebrows” not just in Guyana, but internationally.

President Irfaan Ali, last week, made it clear that the elections machinery at GECOM needs to be rectified before there is any move to hold LGE.
“I am not getting into Local Government Elections now….what we have to do is fix what is there first to ensure we have a system that is working, a system that we can trust, a system that is professional, and a system that operates in an unbiased manner, so that the people of our country can have confidence,” the Head of State had told reporters at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

The President emphasised that he is not saying no to holding LGE, but is merely acknowledging and highlighting the need to fix the electoral machinery.
But when asked on Saturday whether he believed that GECOM “needs fixing”, Alexander said: “GECOM has always had things that need to be fixed and we went through the elections without fixing those things…we always needed to fix the voters lists…people who have argued and insisted that we can go to the elections without the list, are saying things need to be fixed.”

Recent calls for a new electoral register (voters list) and house-to-house registration came from Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon.
Harmon, in a statement, said there needs to be sufficient allocations for the urgent commencement of house-to-house registration to create a new electoral register. When asked about the request for house-to-house registration, Alexander said: “I am not sure about that request.”
He, however, said GECOM is a constitutional body and it has a mandate derived from the constitution. The responsibility to announce a date for LGE lies solely with the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development.

When asked about GECOM’s ability to conduct those elections if called, Alexander said: “GECOM has not discussed the matter and I am quite sure GECOM has the capacity, given the time, to address the question of readiness for the prescribe date of elections.”

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) appointed GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, when contacted by the Sunday Chronicle, said the systems at GECOM have to be such that the stakeholders are comfortable before the country goes to another election.

“We have seen the shenanigans and skullduggery which have been perpetuated against this nation subsequent to the holding of the regional and general elections and, as a consequence, I would want to see those things fixed in a proper manner before we go to elections,” said Gunraj.

Gunraj believes that the lack of confidence is not specific to the machinery, rather key officers of GECOM who have perpetuated ‘shenanigans.’
“As is publicly stated, there are certain inquiries which will be conducted into GECOM and its operations, and it is my hope that those inquiries will reveal where we went wrong and what steps can be taken to fix it to ensure that there is no reoccurrence of what obtained,” said the PPP/C-appointed Commissioner.
President Ali had committed to reviewing the events related to the protracted electoral process and launching an international Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to probe the weaknesses of the elections body.

When asked about the status of the potential CoI, President Ali had said: “We have not named anyone as yet…there are many issues going on simultaneously in relation to the elections commission, so that team has not yet been identified…we have not named that team, but I have been engaging various international stakeholders.”
The CoI is expected to help in identifying issues, challenges, weakness, opportunities and threats related to the electoral system and the machinery.