Amended law to be used to resolve ties at local gov’t polls

A recently passed amendment to the Local (Authorities) Elections Act is about to be operationalised as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) moves to resolve several ties in the First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) component of the recently held local government elections.

According to Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield, there have been ties in constituencies in the Hague/Blankenburg Local Authority Area (LAA), in Soesdyke/Huis’t Coverden and one of the constituencies that comprise the Kwakwani LAA.

Specifically, the election in Constituency 2 in the Hague/Blankenburg LAA saw an equal number of electors casting votes in favour of Joseph Boucher, of APNU, and Joseph Gurahoo, of the PPP/C; in Constituency 7 of Soesdyke/Huis’t Coverden, APNU’S Cledwin Williams and the PPP/C’s Raghunandan Singh also managed to secure the same number of votes; and voters in Constituency 4 of Kwakwani equally favoured the AFC’s Natasha Mohamed and Petranella Pollard of Kwakwani United For Progress (KUFP).

Lowenfield explained that GECOM, having identified the ties, is moving to ensure that they are resolved within the letter of the law.

Previously, any ties at the constituency level had to be resolved via a byelection but amendments passed in June now allow for these to be resolved by the drawing of lots in the presence of a magistrate.

The particular provisions reads, “where the Returning Officer ascertains and declares, under subsection (1)(b) that the votes cast in favour of each of two or more candidates are equal in number but greater than the number of votes cast in favour of any other candidate, the Returning Officer, acting in the presence of a designated Magistrate, the candidates or their representatives and members of the public, shall by lot choose one of the candidates and the Returning Officer shall declare the candidate chosen to be duly elected as the councillor for that constituency.”

In 2016, a similar tie occurred in Constituency 7 of Rose Hall when Chattergoon Ramnauth of the PPP/C secured 166 votes as did independent candidate Sandra Chisholm.

It had been identified that the Municipal and District Councils Act, as amended by Section 53A. (1) of the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Act, provides that “Where a vacancy for a councillor in respect of the first-pastthe-post occurs the Clerk of the Council shall… inform the Elections Commission, which shall instruct the Chief Election Officer to hold a ByElection and the Chief Election Officer shall carry out the instructions thereof.”

However, GECOM argued that there was no legal provision for the conduct of a by-election where there is an equality of votes for two or more candidates for any constituency election.

“The Commission is of the position that, since no one could be issued a Certificate of Election due to the equality of votes, no councillor could be appointed in respect of constituency No. 7 for the Municipality of Rose Hall. Therefore, the issue of the existence of a vacancy does not arise,” it explained in a press release at the time.

Stabroek News has since learnt that another reason why a by-election was not held is that the Official List of Electors (OLE) had expired by the time the results of the 2016 elections were gazetted.

This provision has since been amended to provide for a “six months” shelf life of the OLE as opposed to the previous “three months.”

Additionally the June amendments provide a mechanism for the resolution of ties at the level of the LAA.

Sections 2(c), 3 and 5 of the amended Act changed the Municipal and District Councils Act, the Local Government Act, and the Local Democratic Organs Act to provide for the utilisation of the number of votes garnered by the councillors elected on the basis of Proportional Representation lists at the elections at which they were elected to resolve ties in the election of Mayors, Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen.

This matter became the subject of a court case after there was a tie in the number of seats awarded to APNU+AFC and the PPP/C in the Mabaruma Township as well as at the Woodlands-Bel Air, Malgre Tout-Meer Zorgen, Gibraltar-Fyrish, IndustryPlaisance and WoodlandsFarm NDCs at the 2016 polls.

In light of the ties, Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan controversially appointed the Mayor of Mabaruma as well as chairmen and vice chairmen of the NDCs, prompting the PPP/C to move to the court to secure orders quashing the appointments.

However following the amendments these too are to be resolved by the drawing of lots if all measures are exhausted.

The law provides for three rounds of votes. During the third round of votes those councillors holding Proportional Representation (PR) seats shall have their seat value calculated based on the number of PR votes cast for their Party List. This means that the party with the larger number of PR votes will decide the voting.

“For the purpose of the computation…councillors elected as a result of a Proportional Representation list of candidates, shall be deemed to have each received an equal numeric seat value corresponding to the total number of votes received by that list divided by the total number of seats allocated to that list of candidates,” the law explains.

Notably with the exception of Woodlands-Bel Air and Malgre Tout-Meer Zorgen all NDCs where there previously were ties have now voted in favour of the APNU. Equal seats have once again been awarded to both parties in the Woodlands-Bel Air and Malgre Tout-Meer Zorgen NDCs.