GECOM will have to answer for all its unpardonable sins

Dear Editor,
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has been at the centre of a very bumpy road; towards what the nation thought was the homestretch to clearly deserved elections. Our citizens and international observers bear witness to Mr David Granger and his coalition partner’s imposition of monstrous obstacles that the main Opposition finally dispelled with, after strenuous protests and legal battles. The fallen Granger Government has not fully complied with rulings of the CCJ and the continuance of frustrating the nation seems to have willing partners in many who work as administrators in the GECOM Secretariat.

The mere fact that GECOM stood as an equal challenger supporting the clearly flawed position in the legal constitutional matters highlight the poisoned chalice suicidal position that still hangs over free and fair national elections. Suddenly after all the glaring abuse of authority by Mr Granger, his Commissioners and the Chief Elections Office at the Secretariat, GECOM now hurls another suck-sand in the path to block the progression of our dear nation. A mere thirty-nine hours before the statutory due date for the release of the Official List of Electors, GECOM announces and circulates 91,000 changes to the Revised List of Electors.

It seems as though someone injected the GECOM staff charged with the administrative responsibility of finalising the registration issues with a dose of mad blood. They are using the unverified, truncated and highly questionable House-to-House Registration data, to deliberately and illegally contaminate the Register of Registrants and this illegal act will undoubtedly produce a confused and convoluted OLE. The Secretariat made the changes without following the stipulated statutory approach, although much evidence has been provided regarding the error-laced and deliberately falsified exercise conducted by Keith Lowenfield.

This is indeed an extremely serious matter. The nation is way past the point of calling on the ‘learned’ ret’d Justice Claudette Singh, Chairman of GECOM to exercise assertiveness over the process and make the wise and correct decisions. There are no provisions in the law for GECOM to make these sweeping changes to the RLE. Further, the law clearly states that before any additional names to the Register of Registrants, there must be a statutory period of Claims and Objections process before the changes can be accepted by the Commissioner of Registration and the names be added to the Voters’ List.

Additionally, before the Chief Election Officer makes any changes to the RLE, he must write to each person informing them of the changes, and publish the information. Something is seriously wrong at GECOM where the environment is rotting in decay, and no longer inspires confidence in the nation it serves. The approach adopted by those in control suggests that they are set to bully the nation in a partisan exercise, even though the presented evidence and rational position confirm otherwise. The fact is that the many complaints brought to the attention of the Commission seem to fall on deaf ears, although it is clear as day that the evidence presented needs to be examined to inform the decisions of the Commission.

Simply put, it is outright unacceptable for GECOM to use unverified data from the truncated data while breaching all rational reasoning and legislative procedural guidelines. The timelines granted for political parties to examine the 90,000 changes made to the RLE is impossible, given the error-laced inundation of these positions. Some of the checks made confirm far too many persons whose registered positions reflect that they are living on an empty lot of at location clearly uninhabitable. There are simply too many errors and/or deliberate omissions and inclusions, suggesting total contamination of the RLE.

GECOM is not providing a schedule and timely information and when their approach varies from procedural norms, it sets up a clear legally challenging environment since it favours only those making the decisions. At this point, it appears to be the Government Commissioners and MrLowenfield. I once again advocate on behalf of the thousands of persons who are waiting for their ID cards, to hear from the GECOM Chairman.

Why are they not hearing from GECOM about receiving their ID cards? Recently, Government Executive Mr Harmon recently wielded statements at a Linden APNU/AFC rally, about persons with ‘pink slips’ being allowed to vote. These threats and directions are unacceptable to GECOM and yet, not one word has come from GECOM to address the mess. It is indeed most shameful!

Inside information received presents quite a revelation. The appointment of the ‘unfit’ Patterson was central to the ploy to set up all the confusion at GECOM. The imbalanced hiring of staff to achieve a partisan control of the APNU/AFC Secretariat was all in the making to delay the National and Regional Elections.

From inside GECOM, reliable sources informed me that the Secretariat recruited enumerators to do the House-to-House Registration, to whom they deliberately provided sub-optimal training. The cameras used for the Registrations were cheap and the people were unable to produce quality photographs. Worst, the inkpads GECOM bought and used were cheap stuff that encouraged excessive smudging. Further, the persons hired to do the “encoding” deliberately made a mess of the situation. This nation is sitting on the edges of their seats and from all indications; GECOM will have to answer for all these unpardonable sins.

Sincerely,
Neil Kumar