MEMBERS of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have given President David Granger the assurance that the commission is on track for the holding of new General and Regional Elections on March 2, 2020.

This assurance was given by the commission on Friday when it met with the President and other Ministers of government at the Ministry of the Presidency following a request from the Head of State. Those present from the commission included Chair, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh; Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, and Commissioners Vincent Alexander, Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shadick, Charles Corbin, Robeson Benn and Desmond Trotman.

Meanwhile, President Granger was accompanied by Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan; Attorney General, Basil Williams; Minister of Business, Haimraj Rajkumar, and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson. Following the meeting, the commissioners spoke with the media and maintained their differing stance on matters related to the recently-concluded field verification process and additional financing needed for the elections.

ARTIFICIAL CLAIMS

On the same day, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, had accused government-scrutineers of being behind the 6,534 unconfirmed new registrants of field verification process. Recently, the commission had voted that a team of scrutineers would be working for five days to verify the existence of 16,863 new registrants. The need for verification came as there were instances of duplicates whereby persons already on the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB) were found to be listed as new registrants.

Approximately 61 per cent of 16,863 new registrants or a total of a total of 10,329 were confirmed. Responding to the accusations, Alexander said: “The opposition leader had an opportunity, when we did the legal registration, to have his scrutineers present. His behaviour and his accusations are contrived.” He stated that the entire field verification process was a waste of time as persons may have left the country following the house-to-house registration exercise which was aimed at creating a new NRRDB.

“Those people are likely to travel, they are likely not to be home, some are likely to die. Why do you go back in a very unorthodox manner to be verifying people who have been properly registered,” Alexander questioned. He had told the newspaper prior that only fingerprint cross matching and manual side-by-side comparisons of the data on registrants can address the issue of duplicates.

FINANCING SURE

Also speaking with the media, Shadick stated that she raised the issue of financing for elections and wanted the assurance that GECOM would receive additional funds needed when it makes the request. Benn expounded: “It was pointed out that the money should be made available in any event and that requests for any approvals through the Ministry of Finance, that those should be dealt with expeditiously.”

Gunraj said: “Elections are very cost intensive events and I hope that the availability of funds or lack thereof do not form a fetter on our ability to hold elections in a proper manner.” However, Alexander stated that he does not see the issue of funding affecting the commission’s work as it has been advised by the Ministry of Finance that plans are in place.

In the beginning of the month, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, had told the newspaper that GECOM can expect to get any additional funding it may need for the coming elections in early 2020 and this will be facilitated by the Ministry of Finance. “I have written [GECOM] and indicated that we will provide the funding as required in 2020,” Minister Jordan said.

“It doesn’t require Parliament…the Constitution provides for the kind of funding that GECOM needs without going to Parliament and, eventually when the [2020] budget is passed, it will include the funding that we gave them.” While the commission remains on track, Benn stated that there are some “internal issues” at the GECOM Secretariat which he believes should be ironed out.

“We have a very tight timeline and any deviation from the instances or events on that timeline could result in delays,” Gunraj later explained. “So far I believe that we are working assiduously to ensure that every aspect of the timeline is met and dealt with so, as a consequence, we are hoping that there’s no slippage that will allow for a delay.” The commission is presently working to finalise the information from the Claims and Objections (C&O), house-to-house registration exercise and cross-matching prior to the presentation of a Revised List of Electors (RLE).