…One commissioner says body not meeting often enough
CHAIRMAN of the Guyana Elections Commission Dr. Steve Surujbally has said that the entity is on track for the upcoming national and regional elections, and rejected a recent PPP press statement which suggested that the body has not been meeting and that its preparation for the polls were dubious. Speaking at a training workshop for electoral scrutineers at the Tower Hotel yesterday, Dr. Surujbally said the work is going on, “scrutineering is taking place. The claims and objections will begin [soon].” Elections, constitutionally due every five years, are likely before the end of the year.
“The Commission is meeting every other week. Of course as we get closer to the elections, we might be meeting twice a week, but at this point in time as we get things moving, I really don’t think that there is that necessity of having Commissioners meet more often,” said Dr. Surujbally.
According to him, the last meeting the commissioners had was two hours long, instead of the usual five hours. “We get through the matters [at the meetings],” he said.
Acknowledging that there is some degree of absenteeism on the part of some commissioners, he said that this does not affect the work of the Commission “in any profound way”, since meetings go on once there is a quorum.
Not so fast!
However, one commissioner is disputing the assertion that the body has been meeting as regularly as it should. Speaking to this newspaper on the condition of anonymity, the commissioner said that the last time the body had a meeting was three weeks ago. He said too that many times there is no quorum because of the absence of one or two commissioners appointed by the opposition. The commissioner said also that there should have been a meeting on Tuesday but it never happened.
This person explained that for there to be a quorum, the chairman must be present, as well as two commissioners from the PPP and two from the opposition. He said that the lack of meetings was a concern particularly in light of the fact that the claims and objections period is scheduled to begin in a number of weeks.
Asked about the number of persons on the list of registrants, Dr. Surujbally said that he is unable to answer such a question since the registration process is ongoing. He noted as well the claims and objections period that will have implications for the final shape of the list.
Source documents
Asked about the issues raised with regard to source documents that must be used by the General Registers Office of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dr. Surujbally said: “We have documented responses in writing and consultations are still on the way. We at GECOM are not quite satisfied with the alacrity with which people who have registered are getting their birth certificates processed, or for that matter, people who have all the documentation and still not being registered.” He said that when the time is right, he will give examples of the imbroglio to which he referred. “Some of them are quite ridiculous,” he stated.
“Our job is to get a list which no one can argue that the list is not [proper],” he said. However, he explained that the issues with the source documentation and uplift of birth certificates are not in the purview of GECOM, but of the Ministry of Home Affairs.  “And they (the Ministry) tell us that they are working assiduously to solve the problems and they have written to us, saying these are the steps for the registration and we are following these steps,” he said.
The right atmosphere
Addressing a number of scrutineers from various political parties, Dr. Surujbally spoke of the environment and atmosphere that must be created for the upcoming elections. “There might come a time when there is no need for scrutineers to look over our shoulders. But that time is not now. I would wish to see a GECOM that is so credible that whatever it does would be accepted by the political combatants for high office in this country,” he mused. “At this stage, I don’t think we have achieved that level of belief, that conviction that GECOM is an office that ensures correctness at all times. Sometimes I do believe we are the whipping boys when the political parties cannot in fact combat each other on issues, they take upon themselves to channel their energies towards GECOM. That is a part of the course and we understand that,” said Dr. Surujbally.
He spoke of the press release issued by the PPP decrying the preparation process of GECOM for the elections and the absence of meetings of the body.
In that release, the PPP said that because of the absence of an opposition commissioner, there are no meetings being held, for want of a quorum. Further, at least one other political party has expressed concerns of late over GECOM’s electoral preparation process.
“The author of that release in fact called me up yesterday to inform me that this release would come. I immediately informed him that there was nothing to fear. GECOM was on track. But I also hastened to add that I knew that he would still publish the comments,” he said.
Scrutineers served us well
The chairman explained that the scrutineering job is important now. “It has served us well for the 2006 elections. It has served us well for the house-to-house registration. It has served us well for the preparation of the local government elections, which as you know was supposed to be on April 19, 2010. We were ready. We had written to the relevant minister and political parties saying that we were ready for April 19, 2010. That did not happen and you know the reasons,” the chairman said.
He said the work of the scrutineers have put GECOM in good stead during the continuous registration process. “We are about to embark on the claims and objections period and that exercise will also be scrutinised and I am very happy that we have this initiative (yesterday’s workshop) so that  you all will be singing from the same song sheet,” he said.
“If you think that you are scrutineering for your own political parties, that is not quite true. You are also scrutineers for GECOM. You are keeping us on the straight and narrow path. You are the ones that are saying to us that we slipped here, made a mistake there…and if you are doing that and doing that conscientiously and without malice or forethought…then you are also working on behalf of GECOM,” said the chairman.
He said over the past ten years the senior officers in the GECOM Secretariat have honed their expertise to the point where they can deliver that which can be almost mistake-free. “Having said that, I expect that you relay to us, notwithstanding the areas in which we have faltered in the past, any problems that might emerge when you are carrying out your activities in the field,” he told the scrutineers.
“I know in the past we have had problems with the payments. Obviously, the problem did not exist with GECOM. GECOM does not generate money. [For] any payments that have to be made, the monies have to come from the coffers,” he said.
Speaking on the registration process and its importance to the elections, he said perhaps that too much emphasis might have been placed on getting the list right. “We should be the ones insisting that this list is correct. We have done pretty well in the past,” he said, noting that the list came out of a house-to-house registration process in which “every nook and cranny of this country” was visited during which the scrutineers were present.
“I am saying to you that the list that emerges from that, you cannot quarrel with it,” he said, adding that the meeting for the scrutineers is opportune, “as we move closer to the claims and objections exercise.”
He said that the paraphernalia for the fingerprinting and cross-matching has been paid for and is now taking place, the discs have been sent, and money made available for the toners to be used in the production of ID cards.
“We have an action plan and we are on track…we have given ourselves copious amounts of time should there be some slippage. At this point in time, I am not in the least worried,” he said.
After spending some time deliberating on issues on GECOM’s side, the chairman spoke of some issues that had to do with the scrutineers themselves. One of these is changing of names of scrutineers that would have been put up and he said this causes disruptions in the work of the commission. “Similarly, if we decide on an exercise to go into a remote area and we decide on a certain time, I expect that you scrutineers will be there at that time. It messes matters up; sometimes it has to do with tides when the boats cannot leave on time. Our people, I guarantee you, will be there when we say [we will],” said the chairman.
No time to wait
He said that even though it is optimal to have scrutineers with GECOM staff when they carry out their exercise, “we will not hold back when we have to carry on an exercise if scrutineers lapse.” According to Dr. Surujbally, “if scrutineers are deficient in their concept of timeliness and punctuality constantly, GECOM and the Mr. [Gocool] Boodhoo and his team have been instructed to carry on with their duties. We cannot let the affairs of GECOM and our work plan be sidetracked because of external elements.”