House-to-house registration
On Saturday, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) commenced house-to-house registration across the country for the purpose of creating a new National Register of Registrants from which a new preliminary voters list is to be extracted. It was heralded by a statement on Friday from GECOM citing a decision of the Commission of February 19, 2019 and underpinned by Order No. 25 of 2019 which was dated June 11th 2019 but which was only gazetted on July 18.
A couple of preliminaries first. Since GECOM is without a Chairman and meetings have not been held since the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on June 18, who authorized the issuing of the statement on Friday? If it was the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Mr Keith Lowenfield then the public should be made aware of this. Or did the Public Relations Officer act on her own accord? Second, the late gazetting of the order reeks of duplicity by GECOM and those who are now in charge of it. The Order was dated one week prior to the CCJ ruling no doubt with the expectation that Justice Patterson would be removed from office and likely withheld to avoid judicial notice being taken of it.
Irrespective of the origins of the Order, the initiation of house-to-house registration on Saturday clashes fundamentally with the provisions of Article 106(6) of the Constitution and the CCJ decision of June 18 and consequential order of July 12 upholding the December 21, 2018 motion of no confidence against the APNU+AFC government. How GECOM without a Chairman and being fully cognisant of the CCJ ruling affirming that elections must be held within three months of June 18 could proceed with this registration exercise defies logic and defiles the constitution. If CEO Lowenfield is behind the orchestration of this exercise it means that he has put his job at risk as his position not only requires faithful adherence to constitutional stipulations pertaining to elections but he must also have the full confidence of all sides of the political equation. The decision to proceed with house to house in defiance of the constitution will put him firmly in the camp of the government and cost him the confidence of opposition supporters. Mr Lowenfield has not spoken about this matter. Now would be the ideal time.
House-to-house registration remains an unvarnished ploy by the government to cling to office and further delay general elections which were required within three months of December 21, 2018. The outrageous falsities that have been bandied about by senior government officials that youths would be left off the List of Official Electors and that the presence of names of dead persons would lead to fraud are beyond belief and reflective of a corrosive intent to violate the constitution of Guyana.
The institution of continuous registration, a
session of which was held in mid-2018 remains adequate for the purpose of registering persons who were not registered and enabling the extraction of the names of youths who attain the age of majority. There is no need for house to house which will undoubtedly be marred by innumerable delays and legendary incompetence.
The list which was prepared for the November 12, 2018 Local Government Elections was extracted from the existing register and provided a perfectly acceptable roll which was not questioned by any contestant. While the life of this list has now expired as a result of the court challenges to the motion of no confidence, the register remains available for the extraction of a preliminary voters list and its updating via claims and objections.
APNU+AFC’s duplicitous strategy is evident: delay elections for as long as possible and fabricate whatever arguments are necessary to justify it. This stratagem has already won it seven months but at what price? Respect for the constitution and judicial rulings has been defenestrated and the country remains in limbo economically and politically. Crucial preparations in Parliament for the oil and gas industry which should have all-party support is now at risk. All of the pretences and the pretenders have been well exposed. President Granger cannot continue to preside over this carnival of constitutional and judicial disrespect. He and his Cabinet must tender their resignations, he must make a selection for the GECOM chairmanship from a list of six names “not unacceptable” to be submitted by the Opposition Leader and he must then name a date for general elections.