GECOM to make MAJOR DECISION TODAY
– Ramotar accuses opposition of ‘seeing jumbie under the bed’
AS the governing and opposition parties debate and discuss opposing stances on the Final Voters’ List, this latest gridlock on the contrasting positions taken will most likely be broken today by whatever decision is handed down by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) or, more specifically, its Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally.
GECOM’s primary mandate is to ensure that every eligible voter is captured in the Final Voters’ List through the utilization of every legal and transparent mechanism.
Currently, there are thousands of Guyanese who stand in danger of disenfranchisement, with the latent threat of vitiation of the 2011 general elections, and it is Surujbally’s unenviable task to find a mechanism, that can stand up to any scrutiny, whereby these persons can be allowed to vote in the upcoming general elections without compromising the credibility of the polls.
However, Surujbally has time and again proven himself equal to the task of solving every emerging problem that has arisen in that volatile body that he currently heads, and today he stands tall because of his uncompromising refusal to subject GECOM to any action except that mandated by his extant portfolio within that completely autonomous entity.
Dr. Surujbally’s credibility as Chairman of GECOM is unquestionable, and reflects his record of commitment to ethical and procedural management of systems under his stewardship.
And under his purview, the Commission’s mandate has been effected, despite the oftentimes explosive internal connects and disconnects, with exquisite precision.

So this latest gridlock on the contrasting positions taken anent the Final Voters’ List by the local political parties heading into upcoming general elections this year would fail to stymie the processes that GECOM has engineered and facilitated under his watch to ensure a problem-free general elections 2011.
According to the PPP/C’s General Secretary and Presidential Candidate, Mr. Donald Ramotar, his Party’s request to GECOM for a re-opening of the Claims and Objections Period should be a unanimous one, with all parties in accord, because it is the membership of all parties that stand at risk of being disenfranchised.
He is adamant that the PPP/C wants a free-and-fair general elections and it is in pursuit of this ideal that his Party is seeking a consensual position by all stakeholders on this issue. However, opposition parties, which had previously expressed similar concerns to GECOM, are now taking divergent positions and vilifying the PPP/C for recommending that GECOM re-open the registration process with an addendum list to include those who had been left out of the Final Voters’ List because they did not obtain their source documents, specifically birth certificates, within the stipulated period.
‘JUMBIE UNDER THE BED’
Ramotar says that his Party has no sinister motive for this request, but that the opposition is “seeing jumbie under the bed.”
Mainly hinterland and rural residents, who have not received their source documents in time to comply with GECOM’s registration timeline, are seeking GECOM’s consideration of their plight, and Ramotar says that he is merely seeking facilitation for these persons to be included in the Final Voters’ List.
Ramotar stressed: “We are realistic, we know that you may never be able to get 100 percent, but there are some areas where there is a significant amount of people…This is a legal process, and all we are asking is, try to reduce the amount of people and try to get them on the voters’ list.
“This is a just case.  This is a case that was made out by all the political parties. It is unfortunate that, at this moment, we have a somersault by the rest of the opposition,” Ramotar lamented during a news conference at the PPP’s Freedom House headquarters on Saturday last.
Meanwhile, a press release from the David Granger-led APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) says that entity “does not, alas, find it surprising that the PPP is accusing the opposition parties of attempting to deny the right of eligible Guyanese to be on the Voters List” because of the vacillating and contradictory positions taken by opposition parties on the issue of the Final Voters List capturing all eligible voters, even if it means extending the Claims and Objections period.
But any objective analysis of the dual and ambivalent stance taken by the collective opposition parties on this issue underscores the PPP/C’s contention of a somersault by the rest of the opposition on the issue.

The fledgling political entity has accused the PPP of the “cheapest cynicism and political opportunism” for the latter Party’s request to GECOM to re-open the Claims and Objections period in an effort to facilitate the number of potential registrants who had not been registered for want of source documents – an original number that was initially estimated to be in the vicinity of 2300, which had been reduced from the 40,000 who were not captured in the house-to-house registration. However, indications are that the number of unregistered citizens in danger of being disenfranchised at the upcoming elections because of late receipt of source documents is significantly higher than the initial estimate of 2300 persons.
APNU’s press release acknowledged that, “The opposition parties met formally with the GECOM on Friday June 3, 2011 to voice their concerns about the “significant number” of eligible citizens who were unable to register because they did not receive their birth certificates in time.”
At that meeting, noted APNU, GECOM had conveyed to the parties their disinclination to extend the statutory period for claims and objections, but promised to await a recommendation from the Secretariat of possible options to accommodate citizens in this position.
GECOM had decided at their meeting of June 7 that an extension was not warranted, according to the APNU release, and that the Commission had instructed the Secretariat to work as late as necessary into the night to facilitate those applications of those persons who had received their birth certificates on the final day, Thursday June 9, 2011.
Conversely, the opposition parties have back-peddled on their original position and are now protesting the PPP/C’s request to GECOM anent facilitating potential voters at risk of disenfranchisement. They are suggesting that the PPP wants to postpone elections because that Party wants to illegally remain in Government past its constitutional time.
However, Ramotar contends that the PPP/C’s request for an extension to GECOM in no way indicates that Party’s lack of preparedness for General Elections, nor interest in extending its current tenure in Government illegally. He assured that the request for an extension is merely based on the premise that GECOM’s responsibility is to ensure, without compromising that body’s credibility, that every eligible citizen in Guyana is afforded his/her constitutional right to vote in the country’s general elections,
To effect this, the PPP has urged GECOM to find a “possible mechanism” whereby these persons under threat of disenfranchisement could exercise their franchise without risk of vitiating the electoral process.
The vehement protests against this proposal by the collective opposition run counter to their own request in June to GECOM.  According to the PPP, “…these very parties are now opposing what they had requested GECOM to do.”
This request by the PPP, which came after the close of the Claims and Objections period and seeks to treat with persons whose applications for source documents were processed after the close of the Claims and Objections period, is currently engaging the attention of the Commission.
No decision has, as yet, been taken because of a gridlock on voting by the Commissioners, which will be broken by the casting vote of the Chairman on the most appropriate way forward on the PPP/C’s request that GECOM re-opens the registration and create a Supplementary List.
APNU says that its concerns are straightforward and hopefully are shared by the PPP, which are:(i) no mechanism will be adopted that puts into jeopardy the integrity of the Final Voters’ List; (ii) no mechanism will be adopted that runs the risk of derailing GECOM’s work-plan and taking the election date beyond the constitutionally stipulated date of December 28, 2011; (iii) no mechanism will be adopted that does not adhere strictly to the procedures and safeguards thus far properly applied by GECOM in the production of the Voters List; and (iv) the procedures stipulated by the Minister and administered by the GRO for the issuing of birth certificates would not be compromised, since that would risk compromising the integrity of the National Register of Registrants from which the Voters’ List is culled.
Ramotar has assured that these fears expressed by APNU are groundless, and he reiterated that the only concern of the PPP/C is to ensure that no eligible voter is disenfranchised; but he also stressed that his Party will abide with the final decision due to be made by GECOM on whether those persons who received their source documents too late to meet GECOM’s deadline will be left out of the Final Voters’ List.
However, Ramotar’s argument that the supporters of all political parties would be affected was borne out by a letter written by rabid anti-PPP, pro-APNU agitator, Mark Archer, who wrote in the Kaieteur News of Saturday  July 16 in a letter lambasting the PPP/C Government headlined: “A gut-wrenching day, two decades later” in which he states in part, and relevant to Ramotar’s suggestion for a re-opening of voter registration through a re-formulated mechanism, “…I met a woman who could not register because, after paying $2000 in travelling expenses to get a copy of her birth certificate, it arrived Thursday, months after her application.
“To say that she is angry is an understatement. She wants to vote the PPP out, but with no registration card all she can do is pray that her neighbours do the right thing.”
So, in effect, if GECOM heeds the opposition collective and does not re-open voter registration, then this would be one vote less for APNU.
Which is what Ramotar is adumbrating – that all political parties should unanimously seek GECOM’s cooperation on this request and not make it a problematic issue, because every party stands to lose votes through the exclusion of significant numbers of their supporters.
But whatever the outcome, the final decision rests with GECOM – or, if it reaches the extent of a casting vote, the Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally. And it is doubtful that he will allow himself to be swayed by anyone or anything except his fundamental and customary adherence to his own value systems and ethical codes.
He has always exhibited inherent amplitude of considerations in decision-making processes, and no one expects less from him in this instance.
One would expect that the opposing political parties display the same correctness and accept in good faith his final decision on this matter.