Laws to be amended to ensure greater transparency in ballot count
Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Vice-President, Bharrat Jagdeo

–Vice-President reiterates calls for removal of Lowenfield, Myers from GECOM

GLARING ambiguities in Guyana’s electoral laws had created an avenue for the protraction of the country’s electoral process, but, the government, in an effort to avoid possible eventualities in the future, plans to amend parts of the Representation of the People Act (RoPA), which relate specifically to the process governing local elections.
The controversial March, 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections, which concluded with a victory for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on August 2, 2020, left stakeholders calling for the country’s elections machinery to be ‘fixed’ in order for there to be a transparent and legitimate process.
President Dr. Irfaan Ali had committed to reviewing the events related to the protracted electoral process and launching an international Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to probe the weaknesses of the elections body. The CoI is expected to help in identifying issues, challenges, weakness, opportunities and threats related to the electoral system and the machinery.
Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo, when asked about the Government’s position on the CoI, said: “There have been discussions and we are looking [for] individuals from abroad who are above reproach, so there would not be accusations of partisanship.”

Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield

At this point, however, the government, he said, is looking at the RoPA and will soon be drafting amendments, which are intended to improve transparency in the methodology related to the counting of ballots. In essence, the amendments would remove any ambiguities which exist.
“For instance, the Statements of Poll (SoPs), when they are received, we want them published before the count starts, so even before it starts, the people can see the SoPs, calculate them and see who won,” the Vice-President said during a press briefing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, on Tuesday.
In preparing the amendments, the government will also be examining the penalties attached to electoral fraud.
Senior officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), including the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, and Returning Officer for Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Clairmont Mingo, are already before the courts for “misconduct in public office”.

As reported, those who have been charged with offences relating to electoral fraud and misconduct in public office are: Chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Volda Lawrence; Opposition activist, Carol Joseph; Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers; the CEO’s clerks, Michelle Miller and Denise Bob-Cummings; Elections Officer, Shefern February and Information Technology Officer, Enrique Livan.
They are all accused of inflating the results of Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district – to give the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition a majority win at the March 2 polls, when in fact, the PPP/C had won by 15,000 more votes.
Considering those allegations and what would have been observed throughout the electoral process, Vice-President Jagdeo is of the firm view that there could be no free and fair elections unless Lowenfield and Myers are removed from GECOM.

RED LINE
“This is a red line for us,” Jagdeo lamented, noting that his position is influenced mainly by the electoral officers’ actions during the recent elections.
Calls for those officials to be removed are not new, but Jagdeo reiterated the government’s position, noting that the commission should utilise the evidence before them to fire both Lowenfield and Myers. The ‘evidence’, he referred to are the SoPs, which were submitted recently by Lowenfield to the High Court.
The CEO had submitted the SoPs and Statements of Recount (SoRs) of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections to Registrar of the Supreme Court, Sueanna Lovell.
The delivery of the documents was in keeping with an order issued by the Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George, S.C.
Vice-President Jagdeo suggested that the elections commission compare the SoPs to the SoRs, and should the results be similar, they would have enough grounds to fire both Lowenfield and Myers. Chairperson of GECOM, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, has since said that the commission cannot act hastily, as the law must run its course.

“We have an election petition coming up and we have people being charged in court…we are going to let that proceed first and let the court take its course. You cannot just jump up like that; we are looking at the lawfulness in everything.”
Either way, the decision to make any administrative change, as explained by the chairperson, lies with the entire commission and not just her.
In further explaining this, Justice Singh said: “That is for the commission and not me… the commission will decide on those questions… I cannot decide on them, it is not a one-man commission… it is the entire commission which would know what they want and decide on the way forward.”
This issue has, however, not yet been raised at the level of the commission, but the chairperson maintained that such a topic would require serious deliberations and discussions.
“We must follow the law… things may look slow, but it is not that they are slow, we are following the law… I do not know what they want us to do, we cannot just jump like that.
“It is not that we are going to hold back our people and not do whatever…wherever the axe falls, we will have to work with it,” Justice Singh said.
And, while this issue is by no means secondary, the chairperson reiterated that the commission has to be mindful of the petition and the charges against individuals attached to the elections body.

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