Private sector ‘gravely concerned’ over polling place changes

-urges GECOM to reverse course

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) yesterday expressed grave concern that a unilateral change in the location of polling places could disenfranchise voters and it called on GECOM to promptly reverse the last-minute alterations.

In a statement, the PSC said it takes extremely seriously the “very real possibility that a significant number of voters may be disenfranchised” by the changes made by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to a substantial number of polling places in a wide number of rural locations.

The PSC statement added to concerns that the main opposition PPP and opposition-appointed members of GECOM have raised in recent days about changes in polling places which has seen the discontinuation of the use of private residences in some parts of the country.

“The Private Sector Commission wishes to point out that, while GECOM is bound in law to observe the statutory process requiring the Chief Election Officer (CEO) to act within the authority of the Commission, he appears to have acted unilaterally and on his own by changing the location of polling places between January and February and without informing the contesting political parties”, the statement said.

The PSC added that it is dismayed at the claim reported in the media to have been made by the Chairman of GECOM, Justice (rtd) Claudette Singh that the decision to change the location of these polling places is in response to a recommendation made by the Carter Center that private residences, should not be used as polling places.

“The PSC has checked and is informed that the Carter Center in its final report, following the 2015, elections made no such recommendation and we call upon the Carter Center to immediately publicly make the Center’s position clear on this matter”, the statement said.

The PSC pointed out that, in any event, GECOM has in fact identified a number of private residences for polling places and mainly in the urban area of Georgetown.

“The Private Sector Commission is aware that the Chief Election Officer had presented to the Commission in January a document assigning polling places which was acceptable to the contesting who are political parties represented on the Commission. Given the factor of time involved, we urge that GECOM at the very minimum, promptly reverse the last minute and abrupt changes made in February to the assignment of polling places to those originally agreed upon in January”, the PSC asserted.

Coming amid the arrival of various observer groups, the controversy over polling places will likely feature at today’s meeting of GECOM.

Opposition-appointed members of GECOM on Sunday charged that late changes were made to the list of polling places by the CEO without their knowledge.

In a statement, Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn said that they had been given a list of polling stations in the middle of January by CEO Keith Lowenfield that they deemed to be acceptable only to find out that a new list on February 20 had major changes including the eliminating of many private residences as polling places.

Neither GECOM nor Lowenfield has since responded to the claims made by the three commissioners.

The three commissioners said that in late January, 2020, they received from Lowenfield, in soft and hard copy, a list of Polling Stations countrywide together with extractions listing private residences and other buildings to be used as Polling Stations for the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

“We shared this information with the PPP/C for scrutiny and comments. That list was acceptable so we asked for no changes to be made.

“Lo and behold, two weeks ago, when GECOM put the information online for electors to check for their names and Polling Stations, and we received by e-mail on February 20, 2020, a list of Polling Stations which reflects the online information, there were no longer any Polling Places located in private residences anywhere on the East Coast Demerara. The same does not apply for other areas in Georgetown where the private residences are retained as per the January 2020 lists”, the three commissioners said.

They said that in an area like Foulis on the East Coast Demerara where in January 2020 nine private residences were listed together with one public place, “there are now no private residences! All those Polling Stations are