Opposition commissioners walk out GECOM meeting 

….after Chair refuses to meet with APNU+AFC representatives 

A decision by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh to decline a request for a meeting with senior functionaries of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) resulted in three Elections Commissioners walking out of the meeting.

The Commissioners – Vincent Alexander, Desmond Trotman and Charles Corbin – withdrew from the high-level commission meeting on Tuesday. In a statement issued subsequent to their exit, the Commissioners said the Chairman’s decision leaves much to be desired.

“The APNU-AFC is a major stakeholder and as such we consider it discourteous, at least, for her not to have entertained their presence. The current environment in the Commission is not conductive for a briefing of the sort sought,” the Opposition nominated Commissioners said in the statement.

APNU+AFC Representative Amna Ally had written the GECOM Chair requesting a meeting, however, during Tuesday’s meeting of the Commission, Justice Singh disclosed that she refused the request for a meeting, on the grounds that such a meeting is unprecedented.

The Commissioners said that the request for the meeting was declined at a critical time. “Presently, GECOM is on the verge of major decision making with regards to voter registration, a matter that was litigated and requires serious and in-dept consideration before a decision is made. In that regard, at least, a briefing of any major stakeholder should be useful, if not essential,” they explained.

The Commissioners said it offered the Chair an opportunity to review her decision but she declined.

A head of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, APNU+AFC had rallied for the conduct of House-to-House Registration to pave way for the generation of a new Register of Registrants and ultimately a clean Voters’ list.

But, Justice Singh, shortly after taking office, stop the House-to-House registration in August, 2019 instead of October 2019.

The data garnered from the House-to-House Registration was merged with National Register of Registrants Database. The APNU+AFC had contended that the strategy employed had resulted in a bloated Voters’ List.

Chief Justice Roxane George, in a ruling in August 2019, had said while that House to House Registration is not unlawful and is constitutional, the data garnered from that registration exercise must be merged with the existing National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).