COMMISSIONERS of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) clashed on Thursday when differing opinions were expressed on how the Commission should continue following the President’s urge to commence preparations for the conduct of General and Regional Elections.

This eventually led to a walk-out of the Opposition-nominated commissioners from the meeting some 30 minutes after it began.
On February 25, 2019, President David Granger had corresponded with GECOM Chair, retired Justice James Patterson, urging the commission to commence elections preparations and stating the Government’s commitment to providing funding for such.

“The Government of Guyana is committed to doing everything possible to ensure that the commission is provided with the financial resources and has sufficient time to conduct credible elections. I urge the commission, therefore, to commence preparations for the conduct of General and Regional Elections. The government will initiate measures to provide the funds required and to seek the approval of the National Assembly to ensure that an agreement can be reached, given both the Constitutional requirements and GECOM’s capability,” the President wrote.

The call came even as the commission had agreed over a week ago to continue with its 2019 work programme which includes the conduction of house-to-house registration budgeted for with $3B in the 2019 Budget.
In previous correspondence with the President on February 21, 2019, Patterson had also indicated that preparations for elections can be done simultaneously with the 2019 work programme.

“If we were to continue in our current state, more time will elapse and no meaningful work will be done,” he explained, referring to the election debates which have been ongoing since the start of the year.

He later added: “Given the elapsed time, our secretariat is to produce a new work schedule for approval which should be geared to deliver the same outcomes in the shortest possible time. Kindly note that preparations for elections can be done simultaneously with this work programme if the requisite financial resources are made available to us.”

However, when Opposition-appointed Commissioner Bibi Shadick arrived at the meeting on Thursday, she promptly requested from the secretariat a plan to prepare for elections with or without continuous registration.

Shadick was displeased when this was not provided which eventually led to the walkout of the three Opposition-appointed commissioners as the meeting continued without them.
While leaving the building, she told the media that when she made the request, other commissioners stressed the importance of the inclusion of house-to-house registration while the GECOM chair indicated that there can be no “credible” elections, as emphasised by the President, without such.

However, Commissioner Shadick rebutted: “What I’m not prepared to discuss now, in light of the President’s letter, is normal work plans for GECOM because I think we’re in a place where we’re heading to a constitutional crisis and it is incumbent on us to take action.”
Commissioner Alexander, who came out later, relayed his account of the meeting, stating that the commissioners came to the meeting regurgitating the “script” of the Opposition Leader’s press conference which concluded moments before the statutory meeting and refused to move forward.

“We did not have a meeting where people we’re objectively addressing their minds; we had a meeting where people came with a script so that– for example– Jagdeo said he will not meet the president if an election date is not on the table and as we sought to discuss today the implementation of the 2019 programme which does not conflict with elections preparations, their position was ‘unless you’re talking about [an] election date at this meeting then we won’t participate’,” he recounted.

Alexander stated that GECOM has already made the decision to continue with its 2019 work programme even as he and his fellow commissioners have indicated their position that every effort should be made to complete house-to-house registration within 2019, so that elections can be held the same year.

Expounding further on the President’s call to “commence preparations for the conduct of elections, the commissioner said that while funding for such does not yet exist, certain aspects of preparation can begin.
These listed were acquiring materials; determining the number of temporary staff along with other routine operations.

However, he noted that there are more crucial prerequisites for conducting General and Regional Elections which, without a known date, the Commission cannot move forward in planning.
“Elections also require orders that have to be issued; for example, without a known election date, somethings GECOM cannot finalise.

A known election date would then tell you what should be the date by which nominations should be submitted. The date by which nominations should be submitted and a known election date tells you by which [time] you can proceed to print your ballot papers. So, once some statutory things are not done, GECOM cannot move on those things and those things are the things which are critical aspects of the elections,” Alexander explained.

Referring to the President’s second letter to the Commission inviting the initiation of consultations on the readiness of GECOM to conduct elections, Alexander said that this suggests that the President is desirous of receiving this information prior to deciding on an election date.

Nonetheless, the Opposition-appointed commissions are now pushing for the President to put forward an elections date before April 30, 2019, when the current list will expire.