WILL APNU RESPECT THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTIONS?

November 22, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom , Source - Kaieteur News

APNU has reportedly challenged the government to bring on elections. In other words it is saying that it is ready for general elections.

But while it may be ready for elections, the Guyana Elections Commission may not be as ready. No amount of fancy talk by GECOM is going to convince anyone that all systems are primed. GECOM is yet to offer either a comment or an explanation about the alleged foul-up of the Region Three results in the last elections and of the conduct of certain persons in making life difficult for some voters at some polling stations, including the polling station at which the President voted.

There is still a lot of suspicion over the electoral process. There is still a great deal of controversy over what happened in both 2006 and 2011. The political parties have all expressed some reservations, including reservations about the long time it takes for the results to be declared. One way of reducing the suspicions over the results of the elections would be to have a preliminary result declared, but this is point of contention amongst the parties involved.

There is clearly a need for some independent monitoring of the results. The Elections Affairs Bureau was intended to be this sort of body but it has not performed to expectations.

In 1992, when the PNC unleashed unrest in the city, the EAB abandoned ship. In 1997, it still was unable to obtain sufficient results from polling stations to make an early pronouncement on the results which would have avoided all the problems that followed. In 2001, it is not clear what happened to the EAB. In 2006 it depended on some political parties to supply it with results. It is not clear whether the EAB’s final report of the 2011 elections results have been published.

There is therefore a clear need for a more competent independent monitoring of Guyana’s electoral process and particularly the actual results at the respective polling stations. This would require whichever body does this to field observers at each polling station. This in turn would mean that GECOM would have to certify each one of these observers and to allow those who are eligible to vote to vote wherever they are stationed. This is obviously a lot of work for GECOM since it also has to facilitate international observer groups as well as party polling agents.

If the EAB is resuscitated, it should try to involve some of our secondary school children who are not eligible to vote. They will be honest. Utilizing them means that there will be no need for special arrangements to be put in place for them to vote wherever they are stationed. It will also be a good introduction to Guyana’s electoral system.

This brings us to the second and perhaps the most major problem facing Guyana’s electoral system. This is solely a problem for the PNCR to address because it is the PNCR that is at the heart of this problem. Election after election, the PNCR has a problem with accepting the results of the polls. Even in the 2011 polls where they did better than in 2006 and where the combined opposition narrowly got a majority in the National Assembly, the combined opposition took to the streets to protest the results. They did the same, but to most frightening levels in 1997, which they lost and ought to have known that they lost. In the process, they subjected this country’s electoral system to shame because when an international team went through each ballot box, they did not find any basis to overturn the final results. The PNCR has put this country through turmoil for no justifiable reason.

If the PNCR cannot accept its defeat at elections, it should not contest elections. People are getting tired of Guyana having to shut down for weeks in fear of what the PNCR will do during elections. It is time for some maturity on the part of the PNCR.

They have indicated that they are ready for elections. They must now indicate their readiness to accept the results of elections.

Guyana needs a respite from the post- election histrionics of the PNCR. If they are not prepared to accept the results of the polls, they should not contest the elections.

Source - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....ts-of-the-elections/