The People’s National Congress Reform has urged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to intervene into what it calls ‘obstacles’ in the registration of voters during the “claims and objections” period. The party also wrote GECOM about avoiding the mixing of election matters with Ethnic Relations Commission Chairman Bishop Juan Edghill.
The party believes that the government is doing nothing to ensure the timely distribution of birth and marriage certificates from the General Registrar’s Office to eligible voters who have not yet been registered because of the absence of these documents.
One of the nominees for the presidential candidacy of that party, James Bond, told a news conference on Thursday, February10th, that the lack of documented certification prevents the affected persons from practising their constitutional rights, so the matter should not be treated as trivial.
He alluded to an agreement that the government had signed with the parliamentary political parties and GECOM in 2007 in the presence of other stakeholders, including the diplomatic corps, which stated that the administration is obligated to ensure that any administrative, legal or institutional impediment to the registration of eligible persons is removed.
“Many stakeholders, including the PNCR, have been making representation to the government over the past two years for special arrangements to be put in place at the General Registrar’s Office, to remove the bottlenecks being experienced by persons in obtaining their source documents,” Bond added.
Bond explained that the party’s call now follows a discussion its executives had with the chairman and commissioners of GECOM on February 7. According to him, the party delegation, which was led by its General Secretary Oscar Clarke, raised several issues of mutual interest, including the issue of obtaining the birth and marriage certificates.
“The PNCR appreciates the concerns expressed by the chairman and other members of GECOM on this matter, and the efforts reportedly made so far to encourage the administration to implement procedures to remove this difficulty,” Bond outlined. However, the presidential aspirant acknowledged, the elections body cannot relinquish its responsibility to conduct free, fair and transparent elections.
GECOM had reported at the end of the first period of house-to-house registration that it had a list of more than 30,000 persons who could not complete this procedure because they were unable to source the relevant documents. Not much had changed at the end of the Continuous Registration Period, and the PNC/R is now worried that the limited “claims and objections period” will not provide sufficient time for thousands of eligible Guyanese to register.
Meanwhile, the main opposition political party also wrote GECOM over the involvement of Bishop Juan Edghill, Chairman of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), in elections-related matters. Party leader Robert Corbin told reporters that the PNCR still does not recognise the ERC as a constitutional body.
Since 2007, the PNCR had outlined in the National Assembly its position on the appointment of the commission, which it believes is “in clear violation of the constitution”. Corbin reminded that the government used its majority in the House to pass a resolution allowing President Bharrat Jagdeo to enable the ERC to continue carrying out its responsibilities after its life had come to an end.
“The opposition members voted against this resolution, which was in contravention of the provisions of Articles 212B (1a) and (1b), of the constitution, that confers no such authority on the president,” Corbin explained.
Article 212B specifies that the ERC shall consist of “not less than five and not more than 15 members nominated by entities, by a consensual mechanism determined by the National Assembly, including entities representative of religious bodies, the labour movement, the private business sector, youth and women, after the entities are determined by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all elected members of the National Assembly.”
And on a related matter, Corbin said that the PNCR’s suit challenging the constitutionality of the Integrity Commission has not yet been heard by the High Court after six years. This, Corbin said, has removed any confidence the party had that a similar suit against the ERC would ever be heard in the High Court of Guyana.
“The PNCR, however, places its position on record, since there is universal acceptance that stakeholder confidence in all arrangements by GECOM is essential for the smooth conduct of the forthcoming general and regional elections,” the party leader said.
