GECOM says onus on parties to ensure candidates ‘fit and proper’

Questions are being raised as to whether the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) should do more to ensure that candidates of the various parties possess a clean record before being accepted on the Nomination Day lists.

At a news briefing on Nomination Day, which is on Tuesday, reporters grilled GECOM officials on what role does the electoral body play in vetting candidates. GECOM does not have the “legal obligation” to investigate a particular candidate on the lists to determine whether the individual does not meet the provisions of articles 53 and 155 of the Constitution which address the qualifications for election as a Member of the National Assembly.

While the Statutory Declaration Forms are to be used for the declaration of a President named in the National Top-Up List and a candidate as well as the List of Candidates of the National Top-Up List, the Geographical Constituency List and Regional Elections List, the forms simply require the individual to “solemnly and sincerely” declare that they meet the Constitutional requirements.

The form is also to be signed by a Justice of the Peace or Commissioner of Oaths – persons who are authorised to verify affidavits, statutory declarations and other legal documents.
GECOM relies on these individuals and the honesty of political party members and candidates to ensure that the information put forward is factual.

For example, Article 155 (6) (d) (i) and (ii) states that a person shall not be qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly if during a period not exceeding five years preceding the election day, he or she has been convicted by a court of an offence related to excitement of hostility or ill-will against any person or any class of persons on the ground of race. “From GECOM’s end, I know you might be wondering whether we have the legal obligation to investigate and all of that.

From my end where I stand right now this is not something that I think GECOM has ever engaged in and I’m not sure whether from the legal side it’s something that will be examined,” GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward, told the media on Tuesday.

“It is a Statutory Form and the expectation is that the candidates signing those forms to be part of an elections that they adhere to what are those statutory requirements.” She was, at the time, responding to several questions from the media in relation to the topic. She noted that Guyana’s laws do not cater to some of the “what if” questions being asked by reporters.

“For us at GECOM, while sometimes we may be cognisant of things in the public domain, what might be happening nationally, there is only so much that the law allows us to do and the prerogative within GECOM,” she said.

Asked whether GECOM would approve a candidate on a list if it is known that the person does not meet the requirement, Ward said: “The statutory declaration form is a legal form. The law says it must be signed in the presence of a duly-appointed Commissioner of Oaths [or] Justice of the Peace. It is hoped that when you go in front of the Commissioner of Oaths [or] Justice of the Peace, the onus is also on the Commissioner of Oaths and Justice of the Peace to ensure that whatever you’re swearing to is also [factual].”

According to the Statutory Declaration Act, Chapter 5:09: “Everyone who makes a declaration according to this Act containing any statement false in fact, which he knows or believes to be false or does not believe to be true, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be liable to imprisonment for one year.”

The act says that a declaration made under the act may be referred to in any act or in any official or legal document as a statutory declaration. Added to this, GECOM encourages any person whose name appears as a nominator on a List that they did not sign, to urgently notify the CEO.

A representative of the Citizenship Initiative (TCI) had reported to the newspaper recently that during the GECOM field verification process, representatives of a “major party” pretended to be GECOM staff to get persons to fill out their nomination Lists. At the meeting, questions were also raised about the short timeframe the law provides for appeals to be made to the High Court in the case of a disagreement between a political party and the commission on a defective list.

On the submissions of the Lists on January 10, 2020, any appeal must be made to the High Court by January 16, 2020. The approved Lists will be gazetted on January 19, 2020, some five working days later.

However, Ward has reminded that all political parties have been made aware of the legal guidelines and will be given time between Nomination Day and when the Lists are gazetted to make corrections.