“Coming to my home cannot be right” – GECOM Chairman
December 9, 2011 | By KNews | Filed Under News
Pull quote: “We (GECOM) are the one sane body in this whole imbroglio that is facing us…I will go nowhere, I love my country too much.”- Dr. Surujbally
Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr Steve Surujbally has fired back at A Partnership
GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally
for National Unity (APNU) and its affiliates, calling their demands a ruse, and has stated that the calls for him to resign will fall on deaf ears as he is going nowhere.
Dr Surujbally asserted that it is unfair to use the commission as a “whipping boy” for politicking and grandstanding, given all that has been put in place by the commission as it relates to ensuring its integrity.
He also called the actions by those who picketed his home and that of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Gocool Boodhoo, on Monday night, as “crossing the line”, noting that the “terrifying” experience has been particularly traumatising to the children in his home at the time.
“When I received that call from Mrs Boodhoo, the wife of the CEO, the woman was shattered…this cannot be right.”
He explained also that when the protestors showed up at his residence he was at the time also with a colleague/friend, trying to recuperate from a sickbed, and “this happened in the night…the children are crying.”
Dr Surujbally says that it is not easy for especially the children to see dozens of people outside of the home singing carols and “wishing me a merry Christmas and dispersing it with accusations and acrimony…that can’t be right…children crying, for me is a no no.”
He said that this is one of the reasons he has taken up the matter this seriously with certain politicians who might have misused certain children…”coming to my home cannot be right.”
Dr Surujbally also upbraided one of the politicians who was vying for a Prime Ministerial post, for comments that were attributed to him in one of yesterday’s dailies saying that “GECOM is at its lowest point ever.”
The Commission’s Chairman quickly debunked this notion that any sane or logical mind would recognize that this position by the politician is blatantly wrong.
“Are we forgetting 1992 or 1997 where blood flowed…are we forgetting all the things done by GECOM…what low point…everything that we have promised we have delivered…even this length of time that we are talking about.”
Speaking to the requests made of GECOM, he did say that any major party like APNU that makes such a demand, one has to consider it a reasonable request.
He said after all, these are mature politicians that wanted to run the country for the next five years and as such cannot but interpreted as being unreasonable.
“But we should ask ourselves why was there a call,” said Dr Surujbally, as it relates to APNU’s demand for the Statements of Polls (SOPs) to be verified, and he asked why the distrust of the Commission.
“The question that evolves from that is why a distrust of GECOM…What have we done to harvest the distrust.”
Some of the protestors outside of Dr Surujbally’s home on Monday night.
Dr Surujbally explained that there is the Commission and there is a Secretariat.
He said that the Commission is headed by himself and makes policy and issues directives that are implemented by the Secretariat.
“What have we done to harvest this distrust? We had a brilliant 2006 election,” Dr Surujbally stated emphatically.
He told this publication that they carried out the preparation process with all of the political parties involved, pointing to what he called firstly an excellent house-to-house registration process, followed by continuous registration to further sanitise the result of that exercise.
Dr Surujbally also pointed to the claims and objections exercises to further purify that list as well as the fingerprint cross matching and a host of other measures executed to ensure that the election was credible.
“We prepared for the Local Govt. Elections which was supposed to be on April 19…We did the demarcation exercise….The delineation exercises, we created acceptable boundaries for all parties …all of these things we did and did almost flawlessly.”
Dr Surujbally said that in light of all of the measures that the Commission had meticulously put in place, this should not have harvested the level of distrust that exists, “those are things to say we trust GECOM.”
The GECOM Chairman said that it is unfortunate, and the only explanation that he could proffer is that there are other motives such as grandstanding or politicking, and to use GECOM as “a whipping boy” is unfair.
Speaking to the issue of the SOPs, Dr Surujbally said that the Commission during its 349th meeting on Monday, last, decided to issue all four of the political parties with copies of the necessary documents.
As such, Dr Surujbally said, “I really can’t see any reason for them to be going on the street and saying that we have to get this thing.”
The documents that were requested were yesterday turned over to the parties and in a statement issued by the Commission yesterday it was explained that, “GECOM has dispatched to the four Political Parties which contested the 2011 General and Regional Elections (i) the documented compilation of the results delineated on each of the relevant SoPs by District, and (ii) a DVD ROM containing all of the SoPs for the entire 2076 Polling Stations across Guyana in PDF.”
Dr Surujbally repeated that “the protest is one thing and everybody has a right to protest, especially if you get the permission but protesting at our homes, that is crossing the line.”
He said, too, that they have been hearing calls for members of the Commission’s hierarchy to resign but Dr Surujbally warned, “I don’t know about the CEO and what would obtain for him to go, but they had better read the law to see what I am supposed to do to get thrown out…the law is very clear on the issue of the Chairman….If people have no faith in the Commission then there are ways to get around that.”
He said that the fact of the matter is that they are all in the commission for one purpose, which is to ensure that GECOM has a credible election.
The GECOM Chairman said that he was very annoyed to see when someone, for their own private, egoistic motives, would want to erode the integrity that the Commission has obtained.
“And go where,” he challenged “all of us go and then what… anarchy then develops…We are the one sane body in this whole imbroglio that is facing us…I will go nowhere I love my country too much…they must not use GECOM as a whipping boy.”
Speaking to the fact that some of the parties have been saying that the Commission has been bowing to the pressures of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) among others, Dr Surujbally stressed, “Let me make something very clear, it is true that I will solicit the advice, the aid of the commerce and commercial leaders, but nobody will tell me what to do.”
The GECOM boss pointed out that the suggestions made by bodies such as the PSC would be put to the commission, but at the end of the day, they would ultimately make the decisions.
He was adamant that there is no law that says he has to turn over to any political parties the Commission’s SOPs adding that GECOM made the decision “not because anybody told us.”
On the issue of the call by APNU’s Presidential Candidate David Granger for only the original SOPs to be handed over, Dr Surujbally said that his own instinct is that this would not be done.
The GECOM Chairman insisted that at the end of the day, there is nowhere close to enough discrepancies – which were minor in nature – to render the results announced, null or incorrect.
December 9, 2011 | By KNews | Filed Under News
Pull quote: “We (GECOM) are the one sane body in this whole imbroglio that is facing us…I will go nowhere, I love my country too much.”- Dr. Surujbally
Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr Steve Surujbally has fired back at A Partnership
GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally
for National Unity (APNU) and its affiliates, calling their demands a ruse, and has stated that the calls for him to resign will fall on deaf ears as he is going nowhere.
Dr Surujbally asserted that it is unfair to use the commission as a “whipping boy” for politicking and grandstanding, given all that has been put in place by the commission as it relates to ensuring its integrity.
He also called the actions by those who picketed his home and that of the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Gocool Boodhoo, on Monday night, as “crossing the line”, noting that the “terrifying” experience has been particularly traumatising to the children in his home at the time.
“When I received that call from Mrs Boodhoo, the wife of the CEO, the woman was shattered…this cannot be right.”
He explained also that when the protestors showed up at his residence he was at the time also with a colleague/friend, trying to recuperate from a sickbed, and “this happened in the night…the children are crying.”
Dr Surujbally says that it is not easy for especially the children to see dozens of people outside of the home singing carols and “wishing me a merry Christmas and dispersing it with accusations and acrimony…that can’t be right…children crying, for me is a no no.”
He said that this is one of the reasons he has taken up the matter this seriously with certain politicians who might have misused certain children…”coming to my home cannot be right.”
Dr Surujbally also upbraided one of the politicians who was vying for a Prime Ministerial post, for comments that were attributed to him in one of yesterday’s dailies saying that “GECOM is at its lowest point ever.”
The Commission’s Chairman quickly debunked this notion that any sane or logical mind would recognize that this position by the politician is blatantly wrong.
“Are we forgetting 1992 or 1997 where blood flowed…are we forgetting all the things done by GECOM…what low point…everything that we have promised we have delivered…even this length of time that we are talking about.”
Speaking to the requests made of GECOM, he did say that any major party like APNU that makes such a demand, one has to consider it a reasonable request.
He said after all, these are mature politicians that wanted to run the country for the next five years and as such cannot but interpreted as being unreasonable.
“But we should ask ourselves why was there a call,” said Dr Surujbally, as it relates to APNU’s demand for the Statements of Polls (SOPs) to be verified, and he asked why the distrust of the Commission.
“The question that evolves from that is why a distrust of GECOM…What have we done to harvest the distrust.”
Some of the protestors outside of Dr Surujbally’s home on Monday night.
Dr Surujbally explained that there is the Commission and there is a Secretariat.
He said that the Commission is headed by himself and makes policy and issues directives that are implemented by the Secretariat.
“What have we done to harvest this distrust? We had a brilliant 2006 election,” Dr Surujbally stated emphatically.
He told this publication that they carried out the preparation process with all of the political parties involved, pointing to what he called firstly an excellent house-to-house registration process, followed by continuous registration to further sanitise the result of that exercise.
Dr Surujbally also pointed to the claims and objections exercises to further purify that list as well as the fingerprint cross matching and a host of other measures executed to ensure that the election was credible.
“We prepared for the Local Govt. Elections which was supposed to be on April 19…We did the demarcation exercise….The delineation exercises, we created acceptable boundaries for all parties …all of these things we did and did almost flawlessly.”
Dr Surujbally said that in light of all of the measures that the Commission had meticulously put in place, this should not have harvested the level of distrust that exists, “those are things to say we trust GECOM.”
The GECOM Chairman said that it is unfortunate, and the only explanation that he could proffer is that there are other motives such as grandstanding or politicking, and to use GECOM as “a whipping boy” is unfair.
Speaking to the issue of the SOPs, Dr Surujbally said that the Commission during its 349th meeting on Monday, last, decided to issue all four of the political parties with copies of the necessary documents.
As such, Dr Surujbally said, “I really can’t see any reason for them to be going on the street and saying that we have to get this thing.”
The documents that were requested were yesterday turned over to the parties and in a statement issued by the Commission yesterday it was explained that, “GECOM has dispatched to the four Political Parties which contested the 2011 General and Regional Elections (i) the documented compilation of the results delineated on each of the relevant SoPs by District, and (ii) a DVD ROM containing all of the SoPs for the entire 2076 Polling Stations across Guyana in PDF.”
Dr Surujbally repeated that “the protest is one thing and everybody has a right to protest, especially if you get the permission but protesting at our homes, that is crossing the line.”
He said, too, that they have been hearing calls for members of the Commission’s hierarchy to resign but Dr Surujbally warned, “I don’t know about the CEO and what would obtain for him to go, but they had better read the law to see what I am supposed to do to get thrown out…the law is very clear on the issue of the Chairman….If people have no faith in the Commission then there are ways to get around that.”
He said that the fact of the matter is that they are all in the commission for one purpose, which is to ensure that GECOM has a credible election.
The GECOM Chairman said that he was very annoyed to see when someone, for their own private, egoistic motives, would want to erode the integrity that the Commission has obtained.
“And go where,” he challenged “all of us go and then what… anarchy then develops…We are the one sane body in this whole imbroglio that is facing us…I will go nowhere I love my country too much…they must not use GECOM as a whipping boy.”
Speaking to the fact that some of the parties have been saying that the Commission has been bowing to the pressures of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) among others, Dr Surujbally stressed, “Let me make something very clear, it is true that I will solicit the advice, the aid of the commerce and commercial leaders, but nobody will tell me what to do.”
The GECOM boss pointed out that the suggestions made by bodies such as the PSC would be put to the commission, but at the end of the day, they would ultimately make the decisions.
He was adamant that there is no law that says he has to turn over to any political parties the Commission’s SOPs adding that GECOM made the decision “not because anybody told us.”
On the issue of the call by APNU’s Presidential Candidate David Granger for only the original SOPs to be handed over, Dr Surujbally said that his own instinct is that this would not be done.
The GECOM Chairman insisted that at the end of the day, there is nowhere close to enough discrepancies – which were minor in nature – to render the results announced, null or incorrect.
