CHAIRMAN of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally, noted that the Commission’s ongoing work will see it ready for either general or local government elections.

Asked if he has been questioned about the Commission’s readiness by the Head of State, the chairman in an invited comment said: “Three months after he (President Donald Ramotar) has said he would like elections, he will have elections.”
Relative to the hosting of local government elections and the concerns over the poor public relations undertaken by GECOM, Dr. Surujbally stated that he will personally accept blame for the shortcomings in the public relations campaign.
He said: “I will take the blame for the criticism over not educating the public, because while we have things continuously ongoing, we have our skits ready, our films made and everything. I think if we go and put that out now we would have wasted money and wasted time and the people themselves get sick of it. That is my feeling.
“…. we have spent a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money preparing for local government elections, but the minister has to say, in collaboration with us of course, that we would like to have elections on such and such a date. Within six months we will give your local government elections.”
The Commission’s chairman noted that the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development was advised that GECOM would be ready to host the local government elections in April 2010, but the order did not materialise.
“Local government elections are 71 different mini-elections, as opposed to general elections, which is why we need six months, as opposed to the three months for general elections,” he said.
The chairman also fielded questions regarding the timeframe for the release of elections result and contends that while unfinished results are released, the issue of releasing preliminary results could be somewhat problematic.
He said: “If it (preliminary results) could be done and done correctly it will be done. When the results come in it has the signatories of all the officials on it. If a mistake is made it has to go back, the Chief Elections Officer will send it back….it is not that easy.
“We are testing electronic means, but around the world people are getting very skeptical. I have been hearing from Venezuela and from other countries around the world, serious questions about people breaking into and breaching the electronic systems.”
He noted that in 2006 GECOM took three and a half days to release the result, but by 2011 that timeframe was cut down to two and a half days. “By law we have 14 days to do it,” the Chairman stated.
Dr. Surujbally added that GECOM is doing all it can to improve its operations, an undertaken that has been financially supported in the 2014 Budget. “I would go berserk if we have chopped. We have the funding we need,” he said.
The budgetary allocation of $3.3B for the Commission’s administration and other related costs was approved by the National Assembly. Of the allocations, $1.7B is set aside for the Commission and $1.6B for elections administration. Both sums cater to employment costs for 337 employees and other expenses, while $126.7M is earmarked for the provision of buildings, a trestle, vehicles, boats, engines, office furniture and equipment. The money is intended to allow for GECOM to exercise general direction and supervision over the registration of electors and the administrative conduct of all elections of members of the National Assembly, the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) and more local authorities in Guyana.

(By Vanessa Narine)