– on the agenda as electoral reform consultations continue

THE Government of Guyana, on Tuesday, continued its public consultations on the draft amendments to Guyana’s electoral laws.

Through this public consultation, several amendments to the Representation of the People Act (RoPA) and the National Registration (Amendment) (NRA) Bill were highlighted.

Hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, the consultation on the draft electoral reform legislation was facilitated by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, during her opening address stated that Tuesday’s engagement comes after two consultations were held in May of this year when the draft version of the RoPA was updated.

As such, she added that those present will see the influence that some of the Non-Governmental Organisations had during those consultations in May.

Subsequent to Tuesday’s consultation, Teixeira said that the Ministry of Legal Affairs will examine recommendations made to the electoral laws, noting that those will be discussed internally and, where required, amendments will be made.

Meanwhile, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall S.C. noted that following the consultation and hearing of the recommendations that may emanate, the government will move into the final crafting of the product that will eventually be taken to the National Assembly.

According to Nandlall, following the 2020 General and Regional Elections, President, Dr Irfaan Ali examined the calls made by the international community and Guyanese to make a few pronouncements.

Among these pronouncements was the commitment to electoral reforms.

“We are now here as part of that process. The electoral reforms, by the nature of the electoral process, will necessarily come in different incarnations. What we are dealing with here is the statutory process,” Nandlall said.

He went on to say that the government has decided to engage in the broadest form of consultations in relation to the statutory reform. It was then he highlighted that they have already undergone one iteration of public consultations.

On the current amendments in the various drafts, Nandlall said that not a single proposal on any of the amendments gives an electoral advantage to any political party. These reforms, he added, are good for the system, process, and country, and good for democracy.

ROPA
Among the amendments highlighted under the Representation of the People Act (RoPA) was the dividing of Electoral Districts Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) into sub-districts for the purpose of the tabulation of votes.

Nandlall noted that initially, the first recommendation was to have just District Four divided into sub-districts as this district was the subject of the issue highlighted during the previous election.

“The process drew its impetus from our 2020 experience and all of us in this room knew that the problem arose in the tabulation process of Region Four. So, that was initially targeted,” he said.

However, when these proposals were made public, the criticisms came as it was highlighted that the electoral district is not the PPP/C’s constituency and not their stronghold. It was felt that this would cause interference.

As such, a recommendation during the first iteration of public consultations was made to include other regions and subject them to identical changes.

Nandlall noted that in order to demonstrate the government’s commitment to a transparent and equitable process, they immediately complied and further added Regions Three and Six by using the rationale of the voting population.

According to the new section 6A of the RoPA, District No.3 or Region Three will be divided into three sub-districts while District Four will be divided into four sub-districts and District Six into three sub-districts.

The sub-districts, according to the Attorney General, will have a Supernumerary Returning Officer presiding who will perform the duties of what used to be the functions of the Returning Officer for the entire district.

He said, “All the ballots and Statements of Poll, the ballot boxes etc… shall go to a centre presided over by this officer. This officer now shall conduct the tabulation exercise that would have been ordinarily conducted by a returning officer, following the same prescriptions, the same guidelines…”

This means that instead of having one large tabulation exercise, there are now three exercises for Districts Six and Three, and four exercises for District Four.

Additionally, the individual tallies will be sent to the Returning Officer for the Region who does a calculation, comes up with an aggregate and subsequently transmits same to the Chief Election Officer.

NRA
Meanwhile, as it relates to the National Registration (Amendment) Bill, some of the highlighted amendments included the periodic removal of dead persons from the voter’s list along with fixed timings for continuous registration.

According to the amendment in Section Six of this Act, the registration of all persons who are qualified to be electors and persons in Guyana of the age of 14 years and over will be done at offices established by GECOM and will be done for a continuous period.

The amendment said that every year the registration of persons who, on June 30 are qualified to be electors shall be continuous from January to May.

Additionally, every year registration of persons who on December 31 are qualified to be electors and all other persons of the age of 14 years and over shall be continuous from July to November.

Significantly, Nandlall added that the purpose of these amendments is to fix, by law, when the cycle of continuous registration is to be stopped for the purpose of claims and objections and when the cycle is to recommence to register persons all year round.

“So, we will have a system quite independent of elections that is running all year round to register citizens of this country as they become qualified, based upon the qualifying date that is now fixed by law,” the Attorney General said.

Giving a further explanation of how this system will work, Nandlall said that if someone becomes 14 years of age by June 30, from January to June 30, those persons can go to any registration office and be registered.

The cycle will be paused for claims and objections which he said lasts one month. Once that cycle is completed and the data is sanitised it then goes to become part of the National List of Registrants.

“So, once you become 14 years and over on December 31 you begin to register from August all the way to December, January it pauses again,” he added.

Meanwhile, in relation to the removal of dead persons from the list, new sections were added as part of the amendments.

This section will see the Registrar General, upon the request of the commission, send to the Commissioner once every month a list of all persons 14 years and over whose deaths have been registered in the preceding month.

Further, it added that the registration of any person under this Act whose name is on the list of dead persons sent by the Registrar General to the commissioner shall be cancelled.

The commissioner will then prepare a list from this central register for every division comprising names of persons registered in the division that is on the list of dead persons sent by the Registrar General, certify the list and have it forwarded to the registration officer of that division.

Subsequently, when due process is followed as prescribed in the Act, once the commissioner is satisfied that the person is dead, the cancellation of their registration shall be directed.

Following these consultations on the amendments on Tuesday, recommendations made will be considered by the relevant stakeholders and, if necessary, further amendments will be made.