Below is excerpt of the Commonwealth Observers Mission’s report of the shorting comings in the 1997 Elections and recommendations. 27 years later citizens/workers are invited to read the excerpt of this report and assess whether the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has acted on these and the political parties have insisted on ensuring they were/are being achieved.
Shortcomings of the 1997 General and Regional Elections
“However, there were a number of shortcomings. These included:
- the tallying process was inadequately handled, which contributed to the problems that subsequently arose;
- the procedure at the close of poll was not accurately adhered to: this included failure by many Presiding Officers to sign their return;
- in some cases Presiding Officers posted their results returns in ballot boxes instead of placing them in envelopes to be delivered separately to the Deputy Returning Officer;
- the Elections Commission had no clearly defined mechanism for communicating its decisions on the results to the political parties and the general public;
- the computer database for processing the tallying and the results left much to be desired;
- contrary to clearly prescribed procedures in the manual for election officials, measures were not taken to ensure that the voting of particular communities could not be easily
“We believe that these shortcomings contributed to the diminished credibility of the election results that were being announced by the Commission.
“Observations
- We hope that the Inter-Party Committee on Constitutional Reform, or its successor committee, will include electoral reform in its work;
- important and earnest consideration should be given to the future role of the Elections Commission: it may be useful to consider the creation of a permanent institution, which might be responsible for the management, organisation and conduct of elections;
- in view of the many difficulties still posed by the Voter Identification Card system, which prevented a number of citizens from voting, further efforts to rectify these should be undertaken;
- the Elections Commission may wish to consider a method for cross matching to ensure that prior to polling day, Voter Identification Cards and registers carry the same names;
- all parties should take greater part in encouraging their supporters to register and collect Voter Identification Cards;
- the Elections Commission should devise a more efficient means of communicating decisions earlier to those areas which are inaccessible or have no telecommunications links;
- a formula should be devised to ensure equitable use of the public media by all political parties;
- improved mechanisms should be developed to speed up the count without loss of fairness and accuracy;
- measures should be put in place and implemented to ensure a secure means of transmission of the results and transfer of ballot boxes to the office of the Elections Commission following the close of poll and count;
- the Elections Commission may wish to reconsider the separate declaration of the results of the Disciplined Forces Poll;
- urgent consideration should be given to ensuring that mechanisms are put in place for transparent and expeditious verification of results.”
