Dear Editor,
I WISH to raise my voice in advancing strong commendations to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance of the PPP/C Government for hosting the highly successful National Stakeholder Consultation on Electoral Reform. The conference discussed fully, the proposed changes to electoral laws and amendments to applicable statutes.

The support from President, Dr Irfaan Ali; Vice-President and General Secretary of the PPP, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo and other senior party stalwarts, sends a strong signal. In fact, it demonstrates the government’s strong commitment to the delivery of a promise that they will facilitate electoral reforms, to ensure that our beloved country never has to experience a repeat of the blatant attempts of rigging and stealing of power that took place following polling day on March 2, 2020.

Those unforgettable five months, during which clandestine elements purportedly attached to the APNU (PNC/AFC) held their knees on this nation’s neck, must never happen again.
Factually, there is much evidence to confirm the differing levels of compliance by the PNC clan with our current electoral laws applied in previous elections run by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

When compared to what emerged in the months following March 2, 2020, their non-committal to playing by the rules is obvious. The precedence observed in previous elections serves to validate that the antecedent approach of the APNU is to create a ‘suck sand type’ manoeuvre, aimed at swallowing up and suffocating any policy that does not support their surreptitious agendas. Typical in this respect, is the convenient exercise of the well-known ‘party paramountcy’ against any measures of decency, practised by the PNC for decades before 1992.

Contextually, it is known that a few circumstances exist where GECOM through its chief elections officer, allows a particular decision option based on occurrences associated with perhaps duplicitous legal inclusion in associated legislation. These shades of grey areas in the 2020 elections were stretched beyond the limits of their transparent and flexible thresholds, as far as the expected exercise of rational discretion by particular designated officers of GECOM was anticipated. Officials charged with electoral fraud certainly went beyond allowing flexible thresholds, using subjective interpretations as a false cover for their egregious actions.

In the last elections, common practices, reasonableness, and rationality by these persons were thrown out of the window. Consequently, abuse and greed overwhelmed the required discipline of key officials who took advantage of perhaps a lack of specificity in some cases to justify blatantly biased decisions. The circumstances certainly justify the strongest review of applicable legislation to eliminate any areas of duplicity, deter deliberate fraudulent intent and provide greater clarity to prevent abuse.

The Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Minister and the Attorney General, over several months, have justifiably advanced Bills for consideration of the National Assembly that address necessary corrective mechanisms. As is required to support the advancement and acceptance of proposed changes and amendments, consultations with the widest array of stakeholders must be had.

These commenced in 2021, in some cases, with stakeholders across the country. Of note, thorough discussions were held with the Guyana Elections Commission, political parties, trade unions, and all the civic-minded citizens who showed an interest in participating in the very wide discussions. After taking copious notes from all of the very lengthy discussions, draft proposals were prepared and circulated for consultation at the last Electoral Reform Conference.

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, S.C., gave a comprehensive outline of the intent and purpose of the proposed consolidated amendments to the updated versions of the RoPA Bill and Regulations, which were made available once again. Additionally, the new draft amendments to the National Registration Act have also been made accessible for public perusal via a link published on the ministry’s Facebook pages. In keeping with the need for broad-based, objective, and comprehensive feedback considerations, 157 organisations were invited to the consultation on October 25, 2022.

Notably, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, along with Nandlall, held one-on- one discussions with several eminent persons and representatives of organisations before the final draft was prepared and sent out, to guide thorough internal discussions that were followed up with the reviews at the recent national conference.

Readers should note that some representatives of Riggersville operated undercover, as they attended the conference under the disguise of representing alternate organisations. Although they did not announce their presence as PNC, and representatives of the PNC, they did participate in the conference and contributed to its success.

The National Consultation Conference was well organised, and it was made clear that the relevant amendments will give no political party any advantage over another. Further, it will ensure greater accountability and transparency in the electoral process. The public consultation along with the just concluded national consultation is sufficient for a simple majority in the Parliament to give consent.

Let us have the electoral reform amendments now and support the improvement of legislation to halt rigging.
Yours respectfully,
Neil Kumar.