GECOM must remove tainted management so LGE can proceed

Dear Editor,

The Local Government Elections (LGE) are due in 2021. But for these elections to be held GECOM must act with haste to change its tainted management. If GECOM will wait for the outcome of the trials of its officials who are facing fraud charges over the March 2nd elections before they decide on management changes, then GECOM must ask for the postponement of these elections. The better option is to move forward with a new management team. GECOM has a constitutional duty and should not be sitting around waiting.

While the Vice- President and the General Secretary of the PPP have unequivocally stated the PPP’s preferred position - that the LGE be held on time in 2021 - the Governing PPP and the President have said they will not support LGE being held under the present

GECOM management. It is a responsible position. The Opposition, not surprisingly, is insisting the LGE must be held even with the present GECOM management. One can sympathize with the governing PPP, the party which was victimized by the efforts to steal the elections. President Irfaan Ali had to wait five months before he was sworn in because of the attempt to steal the elections. Who can blame the PPP for being wary and suspicious of these same persons who the world watched with amazement as they tried to rig the elections? Who among us is not flummoxed that the Opposition would want the rigging machinery to be in charge of the LGE elections?

One Opposition GECOM commissioner, Vincent Alexander, asserted that GECOM is not perfect and that GECOM was never perfect, but that did not stop them from conducting elections before.

We agree that GECOM is not a perfect organization and that it was never perfect. We agree that elections were held before under a GECOM that we all, on both sides, had reservations about. But when David Granger and APNU+AFC acted arbitrarily in appointing James Patterson as GECOM’s Chair in 2018, they turned an already imperfect institution into a wholly compromised organization. At that moment, GECOM was not just another imperfect organization, it began its transformation into a rigging machinery. Those of us who cautioned the nation about this lived to painfully see the plan being carried out during the 2020 elections. Thankfully, the Guyanese people with international support defended Guyana’s democracy.

It would be irresponsible and a dereliction of duty for anyone to simply ignore that the main management persons are charged with serious crimes for compromising the 2020 elections and allowing them to lead preparations and conduct of LGE in 2021. But the vast majority of Guyanese want the LGE to be conducted in 2021. The new PPP has vowed to allocate the financial resources GECOM needs for the LGE in 2021. This would only be possible if GECOM acts responsibly and moves to change the management structure now. It would be unfair that the LGE is held at a time when most Guyanese have no confidence in the persons who are presently in charge.

The GECOM Chair, Justice Claudette Singh, must act now, convene a meeting of GECOM and begin the reconstitution of the management staff in a way that generates confidence among all stakeholders.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Leslie Ramsammy