THE United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) “Eminent Persons” initiative remains a ‘no-go,’ according to Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr Steve Surujbally.The proposal, detailed in a letter dated early April, was seen exclusively by the Guyana Chronicle and proposes that five persons – Major General (rtd) Joseph Singh, Dr Eric Phillips, Dr Paloma Mohammed,Mr Chris Fernandes and Ambassador (rtd) Rudy Collins – act as “inside mediators” who will take actions that will promote a peaceful election process.“

Dr Surujbally told the Guyana Chronicle that the issue was not resurrected at the Commission’s recent statutory meeting, held on Tuesday.
GECOM, as well as the current Administration, raised questions about the inconsistencies in procedure and questions of timing of the proposal.
In a prior comment, the GECOM Chairman noted that the Commissioners had questions about the timing of the proposal.“The Commission felt that at this time it was inappropriate,” Dr Surujbally stated.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, at an earlier news conference, disclosed that central Government was informed of the proposal by GECOM.
Fielding questions on the issue, he made it clear that the move by the UNDP to make such a proposal to GECOM runs contrary to routine procedures.
“What the Administration insists is the procedure ought to be UNDP approaching central government on these matters, instead of an independent foray to GECOM…it [the initiative] was misdirected to GECOM in the first place and should be brought to the attention of central Government with whom UNDP should and must engage,” the Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) said.
Dr Luncheon was emphatic in pointing out that the mandate of GECOM is clear – the Commission is tasked with the management of general and regional electoral processes.
He said: “I know and the UNDP knows that the foray starts with central Government not with GECOM…we feel, and historically this is the way it has been, UNDP, or any other stakeholder, approaching central Government on initiatives of this sort will them be visited with approval or non-approval or some sort of response.

“…the Administration contends that this ain’t exactly GECOM’s cup of tea. GECOM is constitutionally charged, in terms of elections, with managing elections. This foray into mediation of possible conflict arising during or as a result of election isn’t GECOM’s business,” he stressed.
However, he acknowledged that there could be some merit in the effort. “It does seem that there is an anticipation of the need for mediation….there may very well be some contention around [for] which an effort of mediation could be beneficial…in theory it does seem to have some merit,” the HPS said.
The proposal followed that completion of a report on its five-day needs assessment mission, which was undertaken by a small delegation of electoral experts from the UNDP in early February. The report was provided exclusively to GECOM.