THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has been allocated $4 billion in the 2021 National Budget. Of this figure, $1.1 billion will be channeled towards the hosting of Guyana’s Local Government Elections (LGE).
It was only a few days ago that Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall confirmed that the election of regional and constituency leaders will be held this year, and that further consultations with GECOM will determine the exact date that Guyanese can return to the polls. Nonetheless, as the National Assembly’s Committee of Supply examined the expenditure for GECOM, questions were raised about the execution of House-to- House Registration. It was then that Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira confirmed that no monies have been budgeted towards this exercise, but that rather, LGE allocations in 2021 will cater for the establishment of approximately 17,000 polling stations across the country.

The Government Chief Whip explained to the House that GECOM will be using the 2018 voters’ list to conduct this year’s LGE, which will see the printing of 500,000 ballot papers being catered for as part of a $237.7 million allocation for the “printing of materials” for GECOM.
At this point, Opposition Member of Parliament David Patterson interjected, saying that seeing that voter turnout in 2018 was approximately 40 per cent, the printing of half-a-million ballot papers could be seen as a bit excessive.
Teixeira rebutted saying that GECOM cannot print ballot papers merely based on voter turnout, and that provisions would have to be made for cases of spoilt ballot papers.

IT MUST CORRESPOND

“You have to have the number of ballot papers matching the numbers on the (voters’) list; it must correspond, because to under-produce ballot papers means that people would be denied the right to vote,” Teixeira said in defence.
Responding to Patterson’s concerns about a padded list, the Governance Minister reminded the House that just as in the previous elections, there will be a ‘Claims and Objections’ period. “There will be a period for people to check, (and as such) the list may go up, or the list may go down,” Teixeira noted.
As Patterson continued along his line of questioning, the minister asserted that “If a person does not vote, the ballot papers have to be returned.”
Prefacing the 2020 elections debacle, Leader of the Minority Opposition ‘Joinder’ parties, Lenox Shuman then stood to question whether GECOM has set aside any monies to accommodate local observers in an effort to maintain the integrity of the votes; Texeira responded in the negative.
“GECOM has made no provisions regarding local observers,” she posited.

Deputy Speaker Shuman also inquired whether GECOM has allocated monies to pay the Chief Elections Officer to have an early exit from office. To this, Teixeira responded, “Budgetary provisions have been made for a Chief Elections Officer; if it is not the present one, it (GECOM) still has money for a new Chief Elections Officer.” Following Guyana’s six-month-long General and Regional Elections last year, President Mohamed Irfaan Ali had said that while the LGE are due in 2021, there are a few fundamental areas that need to be ‘fixed’ at GECOM before an actual date is set.
“What we have to do is fix what is there first to ensure we have a system that is working; a system that we can trust, a system that is professional, and a system that operates in an unbiased manner, so that the people of our country can have confidence,” President Ali said two months after being sworn in.

MUST GO
Only recently, Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall made specific reference to the officers who are currently facing charges relating to electoral fraud, emphasising the need for such persons to be removed from GECOM.
“Anyone who believes in good governance, transparency and accountability can never have Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo at the Secretariat. As the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, I have the mandate of announcing that date [for LGE], and I would like to bring to the attention of the public that Lowenfield, Myers and Mingo must go,” Dharamlall told the National Assembly in February.
Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, along with Deputy Chief Elections Officer Roxanne Myers and District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo all have cases pending before the Court.

Nonetheless, as part of the $1.1 billion LGE allocation, a sum of $75.6 million has been budgetted to cover the travel and subsistence expenses for polling day staff. Approximately $26.4 million has been allocated to cover telephone charges and the purchasing of minutes for Presiding Officers and Field Staff on duty on elections day. An additional $89.1 million has been budgeted for meals and refreshments of Election Day staffers.
In an effort to improve efficiency, $18 million has been approved for the training of 8,500 persons. Meanwhile, a sum $9.9 million will go towards the distribution of Identification (ID) Cards at locations throughout the country.
Further, a sum of $32.8 million had been allocated towards the provision of fuel and other lubricants, and even though polling stations will be set up at mostly public buildings such as schools, the GECOM budget also earmarked $81.6 million for the rental of private properties in cases where utilising public spaces is not possible.