—says GECOM statement is ‘disturbing’

THE ruling party in a statement yesterday acknowledged the position of the Guyana Elections Commission, which was made public on Monday, addressing its “perceived readiness” for the hosting of local government elections.And made clear that the Commission’s “rubbishing” of the concerns expressed by its Commissioners is cause for “grave” concern.
“Our Commissioners and the PPP have a right to express concerns over the integrity of the registration process and respect for the democratic rights of the Guyanese people,” the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) said.

The PPP will not be intimidated and or silence its voice with regard to the sanctity of the electoral process— from registration to the final announcement —-we have fought too hard and long to restore the right to vote at free and fair elections to stop now.

The party stressed that its bone of contention, as reflected in its expressed concerns, are centered on ensuring that no Guyanese in disenfranchised in the voting process.

PUBLIC CALL
According to the party, the current trajectory is not a road the PPP, nor any Guyanese voter, would like to go down again.
To this end the PPP calls on GECOM to:
* Provide the Guyanese people now with a detailed summary outlining the important aspects of their Readiness for Local Government Elections. Armed with this detailed information, deficiencies can be identified and the concerted efforts of all stakeholders can be properly focused;
* Provide information on the status of the demarcation of constituency boundaries and inclusion of registrants in each of these constituencies for each NDC and Municipality immediately; and
* Provide their explicit Time bound Plan for holding Local Government Elections.
“The GECOM must declare to the public and the political parties whether its intention to enter a Claims and Objection Period is aimed at preparing a list for Local Government or General and Regional elections,” the party said.

AGITATED PRONOUNCEMENT
The ruling party made it clear that the “agitated public pronouncement” made by the Chairman of the GECOM in response to the PPP and the Commissioners concerns expressed time and again over the demarcation of boundaries and the compilation of constituency lists is disturbing.
It said, “The GECOM knows that it has not completed constituency lists in 21 of the 65 NDCs; and consequently it would not be able to produce an accurate and complete PVL for the next Local Government Elections if the date were announced by the subject Minister today.
“To state that GECOM has six months to do this is absurd, as within that period, a Preliminary Voters List (PVL) has to be published and time lines given for claims and objections and submissions of candidate lists, etc.
“We wish to call on the GECOM to publicly state whether the Commission has completed placing all registrants thus far in each of the 580 plus Constituencies in the 65 NDCs and 106 Constituencies for the 6 Municipalities. This is the point that the Commissioners stated was not the case to the media on July 12th, 2014.
“Further, the Commission Members, nominated by the PPP on GECOM, are fully aware that the major starting block in preparation for Local Government Elections is the Claims and Objection Process; and to “kick start such a process,” GECOM must have a Preliminary Voters’ List for each Constituency; sad to say the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) is available for some constituencies and not for others, and there is no indication that the outstanding lists will be available anytime soon. Hence, the concern about the disenfranchisement of voters.”

MORE GROUND WORK
To this end, the party stated its call for more ground work to address the placement of persons on their respective constituency lists.
The party said, “The PPP demands that more ground work and physical placement of persons onto their respective constituency lists be done now, with the involvement of all major political stakeholders in order to expedite and to ensure that when a PVL is made public, it will include all registered voters in their correct constituency.”
The PPP noted its satisfaction with GECOM’s acknowledgement of receiving “adequate budgetary allocations” every year.
It said, “The PPP is certain that allocations have been provided for Public Relations (PR) and voters’ education. However, the PPP and we are certain we are not the only ones who have noticed how insignificant has been the PR and voters education so far on what would be a completely new hybrid local government electoral system.”
GECOM, in accordance with the constitutional provisions and statutes, has the responsibility to administer elections and educate the public on the new Local Government Electoral System – a fact underscored by the party.
The PPP said, “Even the political parties and their membership will need to be educated on the new system and how to put up candidates on either proportional representational list and or first past the post or constituency lists. This is a completely different system than those for general and regional election.
“The Chairman is fully aware that there are critical vacancies existing at the GECOM that should be filled immediately by qualified and experienced persons through a transparent recruitment process.”
The party stated too that the assurance of the GECOM that its Information Technology (IT) department is functioning well and new entries were recently entered into its national database is surprising.
“The PPP wishes to let all Guyanese know that this department is without a head, hence, we question the integrity of this process.”

NOT DEVIATING
The party said also that it has not deviated from its historical position on the right of every Guyanese aged 18 years and over to vote.
The PPP said, “The party’s track record is indisputable in the fight for free and fair elections from the 1960s to the present; we do not wish to see a re-occurrence of incomplete or flawed lists which would lead to the disenfranchisement of voters.
“The PPP wishes to remind the Chairman of GECOM and the public that it was the PPP who fought for the extension of the claims and objections period in 2011, where 7000 voters were able to make claims and be added to the voters’ lists.
“The Opposition was not supportive of this move. However, if the extension had not been called for and implemented, 7000 voters, mostly in the interior, who were awaiting their birth certificates, would have been disenfranchised.”
The party noted too that it was the PPP that approached GECOM during the sixth cycle of continuous registration to send mobile units into severely affected areas on convenient days and at convenient times to residents to assist with transfers.
“This was partially supported by GECOM. However, as the June 21st deadline was approaching, much was and still is left to be done,” the PPP said.
According to the ruling party, the positions advocated by the party to ensure no Guyanese in disenfranchised is clearly recorded.
The PPP said, “We wish to remind the public that this is the first in six cycles of registration since the 2011 elections that allowed persons to make transfers (change of address).
“The registration of persons is critical to any election, but more so, in preparations for local government elections, as the persons do not only need to be on the voters list, but they need to be in the correct Municipality and or NDC list, and further they must be in the correct constituency list in order to be eligible to vote and to be able to stand as candidates in the elections.
“We clearly reiterate our position that over 8,000 persons are yet to be transferred. This will lead to disenfranchisement of these persons under the new electoral system which will be introduced and used when next Local Government Elections are held.
“The conventional approach adopted by GECOM during the 6th Cycle of Continuous Registration, as pointed out by the Chairman, may have been adequate 10 years ago; but with the several new housing schemes and changing economic and social life style of our people under the PPP/C administration, we beg to differ.”

CURIOUS SILENCE
The PPP pointed out that the issue of readiness is further complicated as there are 30,000 persons who have registered and are on the National Registration Register, but have not been placed in a constituency in the relevant Municipality or NDC where they reside.
The party said, “The PPP, as a result, wrote the Chairman of the GECOM requesting an extension to the sixth cycle of registration period to allow for those who have not transferred as yet to do so. However, GECOM denied the request.
“The PPP finds it curious that there was utter silence from the Opposition political parties and other stakeholders when the request was made, publicised and denied. Our curiosity is further heightened when the only response from the Opposition came from the APNU Chief Whip when the Commissioners dared to expose some of their concerns.
“The PPP is forced to wonder why the Opposition is not concerned by the public statement of the Commissioners as it may affect some of their supporters. If not, then the PPP’s concerns appear to be well founded.”
The party expressed regret over the fact that the Chair of GECOM appears to not be interested in addressing the concerns raised and ensuring that there are no impediments to free and fair elections.
It said, “His own retort to the Commissioners and the PPP excluded any reference to registrants not being placed on constituency lists. This may not be necessary in general and regional elections, but for local government elections it is absolutely crucial, otherwise political parties’ candidates and constituency candidates will find that they are not eligible to be made candidates under the Local Government Elections (Amendment Act 2009) and thousands of voters may also be disenfranchised.”
The PPP was emphatic in stressing that it will not be intimidated with regard to the sanctity of the electoral process— from registration to the final announcement —-as it has fought too hard and long to restore the right to vote at free and fair elections to stop now.