– by publishing lists of nominators, says AFC
– commission maintains publication of lists done in interest of transparency

THE Alliance For Change (AFC) said the decision by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to publish the lists of nominators for the various political parties have exposed nominators to threats and bullyism already being carried out by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

Since Nomination Day (September 21, 2018), a number of nominators and candidates of the AFC have reportedly withdrawn their names from the lists submitted to GECOM, and according to that party, the PPP and the Elections Commission are only to be blamed. But GECOM has made it clear that publishing the names of candidates and nominators form part of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

During an AFC press conference on Thursday, party Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan said the alliance, which is contesting the Local Government Elections for the first time as an independent party, has received credible reports of the bullying and intimidation of its local government candidates and their supporting signatories by PPP activists and operatives.
“Various persons who backed AFC candidates for the upcoming Local Government Elections have been coerced into visiting GECOM offices to request that their names be removed as signatories.”

“The PPP has also resorted to widespread verbal abuse, threats and victimisation of persons who openly supported the AFC in PPP strongholds in the 2015 National and Regional Elections and now for the November 12th Local Government Elections,” Ramjattan explained.

He confirmed that on Wednesday in the Village of Whim, East Berbice, Corentyne, a number of persons, who were coerced by the PPP, withdrew their names from the list submitted by the AFC to GECOM’s Returning Officer there for the Bloomfield/Whim Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC).

AFC Deputy Campaign Director, Juretha Fernandes told reporters that with the lists published, the PPP has created a machinery aimed at “hunting down persons” that signed up as nominators for the AFC and threatening them.

“This is not a case of persons coming on and signing on with Alliance For Change and then changing their minds, this is a case in which persons are being intimidated by persons, they are receiving threats to themselves and families,” Fernandes explained. She made it clear that the situation is not being taken lightly by the AFC.

Weighing-in on the issue, AFC Campaign Manager and Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson said that the entire system is being threatened by the recent developments. He contended that this is the first time GECOM has made public the lists of nominators for political parties, voluntary groups and individuals, opining that such was not the case for the 2016 Local Government Elections.

Patterson argued that making the lists of nominators public exposes them.

“These persons that would have endorsed your candidate, legitimately, are now left on their own to fend for themselves, their only option is to say, that we were tricked into it, so we really don’t want to blame the person,” the AFC campaign director said.

He added that the publication of the lists have placed nominators in awkward positions, particularly those in small constituencies, that are strongholds of one party or another.
“Previously, it was always a question of the right and privacy of the electoral process and the confidentiality, no one could know who you have voted or who you nominated, but by doing so it has opened a whole can of worms,” Patterson contended.

In addition to making the lists public, he said that Returning Officers in some Local Authority Areas (LAAs) have been asking candidates of the AFC to provide affidavits to clear themselves of trickery. That, he argued, is not the mandate of GECOM, and is not provided for in the laws of Guyana.

“It is flawed, and it has opened the floodgates to a lot of victimisation in small communities, maybe in the town and urban towns you can survive because of the numbers,” he posited while pointing to a small town like Mahdia. AFC Member Michael Leonard echoed similar sentiments, adding too that based on reports the party has received, some Returning Officers have been making unreasonable demands.

On the issue of duplication of nominators or signatories, Patterson pointing again to Mahdia, said one of the constituencies there have approximately 132 registered voters – an area being contested by three political parties or more, all of whom would require 50 to 60 signatures nominating their candidates. According to him, there lies the problem that ought to be addressed.

Despite the challenges faced in some Local Authority Areas in recent days, Ramjattan said that within a short space of time, almost at the eleventh hour, the AFC was able to submit a number of new nominators for its candidates contesting the Tuschen/Uitvlugt NDC. Approximately 150 new signatures were produced by the AFC late Wednesday night to the Returning Officer there.

But GECOM Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward told the Guyana Chronicle that the publication of the lists of nominators and candidates for the upcoming Local Government Elections is in keeping with the SOPs.

“It is not a new system; GECOM doesn’t work in a vacuum. GECOM is a transparent agency… everything that we do follow the standard procedure by law. The procedure is, you submit the original, and a copy of your list, and immediately when the RO receives that list, the RO needs to post that copy outside for scrutiny,” she explained.

Ward further explained that by making a list public, nominators can object especially if they did not sign to the list. “It is only fair that nominator be given a chance to bring an objection, this is a transparent process.”

The GECOM PRO said the Commission has not received a large number of reports of objections being made by nominators.