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IT cannot be disputed that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was prepared to disenfranchise over 7,000 Guyanese voters in its abortive attempt to close Claims and Objections in the 2011 General and Regional Elections. Secretary to the Cabinet, Dr. Roger Luncheon, made the observation yesterday when he spoke in the context of recent issues surrounding former GECOM’s Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo.
GECOM decided against renewing Boodoo’s contract recently, especially following damning allegations levelled against him by Commissioner Vincent Alexander. He was accused of manipulating the results of the 2011 elections that could have seen the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) obtaining a majority in parliament.
Dr. Luncheon, yesterday, linked the circumstances surrounding Boodoo’s initial miscalculation of seats to the political parties to those that could have prevented some 7,000 Guyanese from voting at the same elections. “Should the Commission have resigned? Should the secretariat have been sacked or removed? Both incidents were corrected,” observed Dr. Luncheon.
Speaking at his post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, in Georgetown, he said the records would show that the failure of free and fair elections prior to 1992 reposed primarily in flaws in the functioning Commission.
The constitutional reform, Luncheon noted, corrected such flaws. “GECOM post-constitutional amendment is a different GECOM from pre-constitutional amendment. And its corrections, the current provisions, corrected these two incidents, possible flaws, and contribute to the certification of elections as being free and fair by local and international observers.”
CHECKS and BALANCES WORKED
“Those amendments were designed to do a job; to provide checks and balances. It is odd that having done so, the Commission and its Chairman would turn around and seek to impose the type of sentiments among Guyanese about the functions that were discharged by the then Chief Election Officer.
“When the checks and balances work, we ought not to turn around and behave as though they didn’t. The purposes of constitutional reform…they were realized…and yes, to this self same Commission for enforcement,” said Luncheon.
According to him, the Checks and Balances were instituted to deal with such problems and hence the important thing at this stage is that the problem was dealt with successfully. “We have not had elections that have acquired controversial outcomes since 1992 and onwards. Tremendous amount of work has gone in at the level of drafters to make GECOM what it is today and that’s the point that needs to be made.”
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary of the PPP Zulfikar Mustapha said at a recent press conference that Boodhoo made a “human error” and hence did not deliberately manipulate the results of the said elections.
“Nobody is taking into consideration why this thing happened. That shows the kind of process that we have because not so long ago, the result that came out of Boodoo could have gone unannounced without scrutiny at GECOM. I think it is good that we have that kind of scrutiny there and things coming out from the elections secretariat are being reviewed,” remarked Mustapha.
According to Commissioner Alexander, Boodoo’s original calculation had given the PPP/C 33 seats with 48.57 percent of votes, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) 26 and Alliance for Change (AFC) six.
However, the “accurate” calculation resulted in the PPP/C being given 32 seats, APNU 26 and AFC seven, giving the opposition the majority in parliament.
