GECOM is good as it is- Ramotar

…says GHRA’s calls for electoral reforms suspicious 

By Janelle Persaud 

The composition of GECOM as it is has delivered free and fair elections,” says General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, in response to calls by the political opposition for the body to be independent of political influence. 

Representatives of the People’s National Congress/Reform (PNCR), the Alliance For Change (AFC), the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) and the Guyana Action Party (GAP) recently expressed this position at a forum organised by the Guyana Human Rights Association to address electoral reform. 

“It has been so good that the opposition recommended that it be placed in the constitution in 2001,” Ramotar revealed.

“What has happened since then to make them want to change their minds?” 

Ramotar, in an interview with Guyana Times, questioned the motive of the GHRA, which he has placed in the category of the “opposition”. He believes that the human rights body is trying to “confuse the system, rather than be helpful”.  

The GHRA believes that Guyana’s electoral arrangements fall towards the bottom of any ranking of electoral systems according to accountability, impartiality and fairness. 

All of the parties that were represented at the civil society forum, with the exception of The United Force (TUF), believe that GECOM should be free of political influence, but the PPP/C does not. Ramotar believes, In the face of ongoing talks about stakeholders’ participation in the process, Ramotar believes that political parties – the main stakeholders in an election – must be involved. 

He pointed out that two of the three election commissioners nominated by President Bharrat Jagdeo were drawn from civil society, and are not members of the PPP/C. Asked whether the party still exerts control over them, Ramotar said no, asserting that the method used to set up the commission demands that they be independent. 

Ramotar explained that Guyana, being part of the Commonwealth, had adopted the Westminster system, by which the head of government always calls the election date. “This is not something invented by the PPP; this has been existing long before the PPP.” 

According to the politician, when Guyana’s electoral system was undergoing the necessary reform, none of these concerns was raised.  “They never complained a single time about changing the electoral system when the PNCR was riding high in government. They started to complain after the PPP went in 1992,” he claimed. “They seem to be working to try to find administrative ways to try to defeat the PPP.”