…Alexander flays headstrong opposition
…says it would be foolhardy of GECOM to go into elections ill-prepared

THE Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) decision to go ahead with its planned house-to-house registration and a claims-and-objections period will not inhibit its preparation for the holding of elections.

This is according to Commissioner Vincent Alexander during his appearance on the NCN television programme, ‘Context.’ He was accompanied by Commissioner Desmond Trotman.

“A major element of the preparation for elections would be the preparation of a list and a house-to-house registration would lead to such preparations. Though there’s no declared date, what is going to be happening at GECOM would not be a hindrance to GECOM moving into election mode once the announcement is made,” he said
He told the host, Enrico Woolford, that over the past few weeks GECOM has had exhaustive deliberations on matters relating to its preparedness for elections with a final vote on the matter that elections in 90-days are unfeasible. “GECOM cannot hold an election within 90 days, given what is required of GECOM. It would be foolhardy of GECOM to embark on an exercise which it knows it cannot complete in that time,” Alexander reiterated.
“The things which are required make it impossible. We have datelines that we have to observe; some things take 35 days as the dateline; some things take 21 days as the dateline. When you add up those datelines, 90 days is impossible.”

Alexander said that the commission is now facing an impossibility, one which the constitution anticipated in Article 106 (7), which states that: “Notwithstanding its defeat, the government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine….”
However, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said on Thursday at his weekly press conference that he will not support an extension to the March 21st deadline of the 90-day time frame.

POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS
Additionally, there is now less than 30 days remaining in the 90-day timeframe and the opposition leader and opposition-nominated GECOM commissioners continue to push for elections within this timeframe.

Alexander believes that the issue at hand is not that political leaders do not understand that this is impossible, but rather that they are holding on to their ulterior and political motives. “We have been [in] deliberation for about three weeks now on these matters. Very early in the deliberations, a clear understanding was, by the same people [opposition commissioners], that we couldn’t do it in 90 days,” he said, adding that things soon took a rash turn.

“[Now] people are looking after interest. There’s no principle involved here; there’s no lack of understanding involved here. It’s what suits your purpose that you go after and there must be some purpose that a body of people who were critical to the point of the election petition of the list, three years after are saying ‘no problem, let’s use it’,” he continued.
Trotman then added: “Even though I’m a government-nominated commissioner, the government has never attempted to influence my thinking in relation to what is happening at GECOM. I go with my own position and I represent those positions and my position is consistent with what I believe the people out there want.”

The commissioners said that on their way to the commission from work or home, they do not and are not obligated to stop at any political party to be instructed before engaging in their deliberations at GECOM. “There is no political leader or political person who can call me and instruct me on what my thinking should be at GECOM sessions,” Trotman said, speaking for himself, with similar indications from Alexander.

The commissioners also took time to explain the current financial situation, whereby GECOM will have to seek appropriation from parliament to finance the holding of elections.
This is because the $3B allocated for house-to-house registration in the 2019 budget cannot be used as the opposition suggests. Alexander said that this is not the first time that GECOM had sought out appropriation as in 2015, while it was a subvention agency, the commission was caused to do the same.

“We had to go to the Office of the President, Dr. [Roger] Luncheon if we needed money for the activities [for] which we did not have money. On that occasion we did go to Dr. Luncheon and he did get Cabinet to give us an unconfirmed decision; and it is on the basis of the unconfirmed decision that the Ministry of Finance made money available. That’s what happened in 2015, we didn’t just go and do our own thing. We are now a constitutional agency, so we can no longer go to a ministry; we have now to go to parliament, that is where we get our appropriation,” he explained.

In 2012, GECOM took the decision that it needed to conduct fresh house-to-house registration every seven years, making 2019 the next period for this.
It is on this basis that the government allocated $3B for the conducting of house-to-house registration in 2019. Amidst the opposition’s stern resistance for this exercise, Alexander questioned: “How could GECOM claim to run an effective election when it consciously excludes voters from being on the list, when there’s the opportunity for them to be on the list?”

He concluded later: “GECOM has done what it can possibly do in the context of the situation. It is now the responsibility of others to play their own role.”