….Guyana reminds US at UN review forum
…says commission already committed to free, fair elections

THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is an independent constitutional organ and it has committed to conduct free and fair elections here, come March 2, Dr. J. Ronald Deep Ford, Ambassador of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana to the United Nations Organisations (Geneva) said, as he allayed the concerns of the United States of America.
Ambassador Ford, at the time, was responding to a number of concerns raised after he had presented to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group, Guyana’s Third National Report. The report was presented on Wednesday in Geneva during the 35th Session of Universal Periodic Review (Working Group).

US Representative, Sean Mariano Garcia, in tabling three recommendations, including a call for the strengthening of Guyana’s electoral system, expressed concern over the application of the Constitution. “The United States is concerned about recent actions by Guyana that may undermine democratic principles, including apparent misapplication of the Guyanese Constitution, and certain court rulings,” Garcia said.

In response, Ambassador Ford reminded the UPR Working Group that the Elections Commission is an independent institution protected by the Constitution of Guyana. “The Elections Commission of Guyana…is independent from the State,” he told the high-level global forum. He said the Guyana Elections Commission has assured the nation and the world at large that it will deliver “free, fair, transparent and credible elections on March 2, 2020.”

Weighing in on the concerns raised by the US, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, like Ambassador Ford, said the elections commission is an independent constitutional organ – a fact acknowledged and confirmed by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – the country’s highest court.

Referencing to the case – Christopher Ram v Attorney General et al [2019] CCJ 14 (AJ), the Attorney General said the Caribbean Court of Justice confirmed that it is the responsibility of GECOM to conduct General and Regional Elections in Guyana. “…GECOM too must abide by the provisions of the Constitution,” the CCJ said as it handed down its ruling in mid-June, 2019.

Elections in Guyana were triggered by the passage of a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018, however, the validity of the motion was challenged in the courts. In January 2019, the High Court upheld the no-confidence motion but by March 22, 2019, that High Court decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal. It was not until June 18, 2019 that the CCJ affirmed the no-confidence motion.

But in handing down its ruling, the CCJ stated that: “Article 106 of the Constitution invests in the President and the National Assembly (and implicitly in GECOM), responsibilities that impact on the precise timing of the elections which must be held. It would not therefore be right for the court, by the issuance of coercive orders or detailed directives, to presume to instruct these bodies on how they must act and thereby pre-empt the performance by them of their constitutional responsibilities. It is not, for example, the role of the court to establish a date on or by which the elections must be held, or to lay down timelines and deadlines that, in principle, are the preserve of political actors guided by constitutional imperatives.”

While the CCJ handed down its ruling in June, 2019, it was not until mid-September, 2019 that GECOM, having been appointed a new Chairman, informed President David Granger that it would be ready to hold General and Regional Elections by the end of February 2020.
On the eve of October 1, 2019, President Granger, in accordance with the advice of GECOM, proclaimed March 2, 2020 as the day on which an election of members of the National Assembly and the election of members of the Regional Democratic Council (RDCs) shall be held.

Since then GECOM has been actively putting systems in place for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections. More than 600,000 Guyanese are expected to go to the polls on Monday, March 2, 2020.

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT
Meanwhile, in addressing the alleged “misapplication of the Constitution, the Attorney General explained that “there was an omission on the 1991 Constitutional Amendment restoring residency in our Constitution which was engendered by the intervention of President Jimmy Carter, together with the removal of overseas voting by the Elections Law (Amendment) Act 1991.”

A recent High Court ruling said residency was not a requirement for persons to be on the National Register of Registrants – a decision which has been challenged in the Court of Appeal and is awaiting final ruling.

Guyana was among 14 countries that reported on actions taken to improve human rights situations and the implementation of the UPR recommendations posed during their previous reviews. Ambassador Ford was accompanied by Nashanta Benn, Counsellor Permanent Mission of Guyana in Geneva; and Joann Bond, Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel at the Ministry of Legal Affairs. Guyana’s last review was in 2015.