“Logistical nightmare” looms, GECOM not ready – Shaddick

 2016 LGE polls…

– Surujbally blocks motion filed to withdraw action against petition

By Devina Samaroo

Even though the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) declared itself ready for Local Government Elections (LGE)

GECOM Chairman,
Dr Steve Surujbally

on March 18, 2016, GECOM Commissioner Bibi Shaddick believes that the Commission is not fully prepared due to several irregularities which the elections body is reluctant to address or take into consideration.
“In my opinion, they are not ready… These elections are very different from the elections we’ve been having since 1994… I am not convinced that the secretariat understands fully what is happening here,” the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Commissioner expressed.
She was at the time updating media operatives at a press conference on December 5 about several matters of concern at GECOM.
Flanked by two other PPP Commissioners – Sase Gunraj and Robeson Benn – Shaddick highlighted several matters of concern that GECOM refuses to take into consideration and which also justify her contention that the Commission is not ready to host LGE.
Firstly, there is the issue with the mechanisms in place for the Disciplined Services to vote. Shaddick contended that the current system could result in a “logistical nightmare”.
“(For General and Regional Elections) we had 10 administrative regions and the ballot papers might have been different for the 10 administrative regions because of which parities contesting but that’s not what these LGE are because half of the ballot paper will have names of individuals and groups that are different that will be specific to a constituency within a local authority area… you have 580 different constituencies and you gonna have the Disciplined Services voting happening in places… and a man who is listed in Constituency Three in Good Hope [Neighbourhood Democratic Council] NDC is somewhere in lower Berbice and he got an envelope and then somebody

PPP GECOM Commissioner Bibi Shaddick

got to find the right one to give him to vote, then they have to separate them… how do we know that the envelope that they take to this constituency is really the vote of the person that is listed to vote,” Shaddick posited.
The second issue is with regards to the date for LGE, which is a Friday, in the middle of a school term when children are preparing to write their Easter Term examinations.
“You should have had it on Monday so you will have the weekend to prepare the schools for the elections,” she stated, noting that only one school day would be interrupted.
There is also the issue of certain outstanding laws that need to be repealed; for example, while there is an order listing three new towns, there is still a law in existence which identifies these new towns as NDCs.
Shaddick pointed out that certain boundaries still need to be defined. According to her, in one constituency, there are only 55 registered voters. She argued a contesting group needs 40 supporters in that constituency, therefore, if the constituency only has 55 voters, then the possibly exists that they cannot have any contest in that area.
She noted too that there needs to be a more robust educational campaign regarding LGE, given that this process is fairly new to many.

Motion
Meanwhile, the three PPP Commissioners had advanced a motion at GECOM’s Statutory Meeting on December 1 to instruct the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield to withdraw the application to the courts to strike out the election petition filed by Ganga Persaud with respect to the May 11, 2015 General and Regional Elections.
However, this motion was blocked by GECOM Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally, who used his casting vote to rule in favour of the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Commissioners.
Commissioner Benn, during the press conference, pointed out that this move by Dr Surujbally only “serves to confirm that GECOM is unwilling to open up itself to public scrutiny by way of a court process and is, therefore, unable, as it continues to operate, to deliver free, fair, transparent elections to the people of Guyana, as it mandated by law.”
Benn posited that this also does not augur well for the conduct of GECOM and the fairness of the upcoming LGE.
Moreover, Benn disclosed that the application filed by Lowenfield is already costing GECOM and the taxpayers nearly $7 million.