MORE than a year after Guyana’s six-month-long elections debacle, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has moved one step closer to delivering on its promise to reform Guyana’s electoral laws.

The reformation is to mainly to ensure that there are no avenues for the hijacking of an election, and that any attempt to do so would be met with clearly outlined legal consequences.

The draft amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act (RoPA) and its regulations were released Online on Friday.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, the objective of the amendments to the electoral laws is to examine the process, from registration to the declaration of the results, so that every stage of it is unambiguous and transparent. “This significant step in the electoral reform process is necessary to ensure Local Government and General and Regional Elections are conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner,” the statement reads.

Just last week President Dr. Irfaan Ali announced that the amendments would be released this week, following extensive work conducted by Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall and his team of legal experts.

Going forward, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira has been assigned the responsibility of leading and coordinating the consultation process with national stakeholders.

In addition to being posted Online, hard copies of the 200-page proposed amendments will be circulated to various political parties and civil society organisations. “The ministry will also collect and coordinate feedback from individuals and organisations, and compile these for the government’s review,” the press release said.

The statement outlined, too, that members of the public, inclusive of national stakeholders, will have six weeks, from the date of the publication of the draft amendments, to review, comment, and propose additional changes. “Another set of draft amendments will be added shortly to the consultation process, with regards to the registration of voters under the National Registration Act,” the Governance Ministry said.

Added to that, following consultations, the government intends to conduct another set of reviews, in an effort to finalise a compendium of Bills and Regulations which will then be tabled in the National Assembly.

“The public and national stakeholders are encouraged to peruse these amendments, and submit their views to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance on its Facebook page, via email, at ministergt.mpag@gmail.com, or by mail to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, 105 New Garden St, Queenstown, within six weeks,” the statement noted.

It went on to explain that the government’s commitments towards the amended election laws was made in response to “repeated attempts to hijack the will of the people to choose their government in the five-month- long process following the March 2020 General and Regional Elections”.

People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General-Secretary and Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo, speaking at a news conference recently, also emphasised the need for electoral reform, stating that, “the idea is to make [the laws] more transparent, and to define responsibilities in the Act [so] that [they] are unambiguous, and… to put in place a set of penalties for people who may try to steal the elections… Any right-thinking person will support that.”

The March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections were plagued with a number of dramatic events, which lasted for six months, after which President Ali was sworn in on August 2, 2020.

As a result of the debacle, several constitutional officers were fired from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), and currently, the former Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, along with his Deputy, Roxanne Myers, and the Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo are facing charges relating to electoral fraud.

In addition to Lowenfield, Mingo and Myers, Chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Volda Lawrence; Opposition activist, Carol Joseph; the CEO’s clerks, Michelle Miller and Denise Bob-Cummings; Elections Officer Shefern February, and Information Technology Officer Enrique Livan, were also charged.

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, 2020 polls, when in fact the PPP/C had won by 15,000 votes.