Non-acceptance of 2020 poll results main risk in current political climate
-UN assessors warn
Given Guyana’s current “difficult political climate” and “potential security situation”, a United Nations (UN) assessment team has found that there are various possible risks to future electoral processes, with the non-acceptance by the losing party at the 2020 elections being seen as the primary one.
“The electoral processes, particularly the 2020 elections, will no doubt heighten underlying ethnic tensions,” the UN Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) notes in the executive summary of its report, before recommending that the UN must provide requested technical assistance to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in a manner that recognises the environment. “In such a sensitive political environment, with widespread mistrust among political actors across public institutions, including GECOM, the UN must provide its technical assistance in a clear framework and the parameters, responsibilities and limitations need to be properly communicated to stakeholders and the public in general,” it adds.
The mission was conducted between May 7th and May 11th, 2018 at GECOM’s request for technical assistance in information and communication technology and the provision of expertise in database and information management systems, including the transmission of elections results.
In the executive summary of its report, the NAM noted that GECOM has the capacity to organise the electoral processes in Guyana with minimal international support. However, the main point of concern, NAM said, remained the accuracy of the voters list, the system of tabulation, and the transmission and announcement of results, which is considered too long by most stakeholders.
It said that senior government officials, among interlocutors, mentioned the need to create a new voters list for the 2020 elections as many stakeholders perceive the list to be “considerably inflated,” and that a house-to-house registration be conducted. Critics of the proposal for a new voters list have suggested that the existing list could be cleansed by various means. The NAM said, “There is no certainty that a new voters list will have more credibility than the current list and that stakeholders will trust it more. Furthermore, any list created close to the elections will likely be criticised as politically motivated.”
The NAM said it found that “all interlocutors have agreed that the country is undergoing tense political discourse dominated by the lack of trust between the two main political parties.”
Ethnic violence has characterised Guyana’s elections prior to gaining political independence in 1966 until about 2006, the NAM noted.
Despite the potential threat of violence in the upcoming electoral process, the NAM said, some believe that the APNU +AFC coalition had contributed to bridging the ethnic divide, thereby minimising the possibility of Guyana returning to the level of violence witnessed in past elections.
The NAM said it hoped that non-violence messaging done by political parties in 2015 are reinforced in upcoming elections.
The NAM found that “Some interlocutors raised concerns about the judiciary’s ability to fairly and expeditiously resolve electoral complaints.”
Saying that the UN should respond positively to GECOM’s request for UN technical assistance to aid in voter registration and the general elections process in 2019 and 2020, the NAM recommended that priority area of assistance should include database management, systems design, software development to improve the