Last Updated on Thursday, 7 November 2024, 22:22 by Writer
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Bharrat Jagdeo said his party would support the introduction and funding of “enhanced biometrics” if the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) makes such a decision once next year’s general and regional elections are not delayed.
“Once it’s not disruptive to the voting and it doesn’t disenfranchise voters and it doesn’t delay the elections and all of that, we’d look at it favourably and I’ll take it to the executive of the party,” he said.
GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer, Vishnu Persaud did not state in his feasibility study for the introduction of biometrics how long that process could take but pointed out that the process would include installation, testing, training of staff, voter education, constitutional reform and operationalisation of the Data Protection Act.
The PPP General Secretary was wary of the opposition devising strategies to disrupt the elections. Instead, he said they should take steps to have well-trained representatives and become acquainted with the manuals.
The Joint Opposition, comprising the Joint Opposition Political Parties (JOPP)—PNCR, Alliance For Change and Working People’s Alliance—is demanding that each voter must be digitally fingerprinted and verified at the polling place to avoid voter impersonation or multiple voting. “Let us re-emphasize that the Joint Opposition supports the full implementation of biometrics throughout the election process: that is, the capture of fingerprints digitally in the registration process (to enhance the quality of fingerprints available to the Commission and aid in the prevention of multiple registration) and digitized fingerprint identification at the place of poll (to prevent voter impersonation or identity theft).” they said.
The GECOM Chief Elections Officer says in his feasibility study that “while biometric technology offers the promise of increased data security and efficiency in the electoral process, issues such as privacy concerns, technical limitations, logistics, potential exclusion, maintenance, training and cost implications must not be overlooked.” He lists several countries where biometric identification has posed problems on polling day and created distrust in the electoral process.
But Mr Jagdeo envisaged that “enhanced biometrics was not to shut out people from the polling place but to ensure at the polling place we don’t have people who shouldn’t vote.”
He was wary that the APNU+AFC was plotting to “shut down and start from scratch”. Mr Jagdeo said he has always been in favour of cleansing the voters list of the names of deceased persons by publishing them in the newspapers.
Mr Jagdeo, who is also Guyana’s 2nd Vice President and considered in many quarters as the government’s key decision-maker, pledged to provide all necessary resources, including funding for biometrics, to ensure greater transparency. “Whatever GECOM wants to ensure that the elections are properly held, they will get. Financially, there will be no constraint to free and fair election or clean elections. Financially, there will be no constraint to that,” he said.
The seven-member Commission largely has two options to make decisions: unanimously across party lines or the GECOM Chairman voting with either the PPP-aligned or APNU+AFC aligned commissioners.
The GECOM feasibility study on biometrics, which was discussed by the seven-member commission on Thursday, estimates that the cost of fingerprint biometric equipment would be US$20.7 million.
Subsequent efforts to contact him about whether the PPP would support the amendment of Guyana’s Constitution and laws to facilitate the use of enhanced biometrics proved futile.
But the Joint Opposition said the parliamentary opposition would be ready to vote in favour of an amendment to Guyana’s Constitution to facilitate the use of biometrics. “We express our preparedness to lend support to all the necessary stages to arrive at this outcome, including enacting constitutional and statutory changes, if necessary.”
The JOPP said the technical and other concerns the Chief Election Officer has identified in his report do not amount to insurmountable or irresolvable issues. “We stand ready to engage in all necessary discussions at the GECOM level, the parliamentary level, and/or at the inter-party level to resolve these concerns to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, including the Guyanese people.
The opposition said it recognises and supports GECOM’s position that stakeholder involvement should be integral to the process. In that regard, the PNCR, AFC and WPA called on the Commission to promptly engage these stakeholders before finalizing its internal discussions on the way forward. Those parties said they supported their commissioners and remain steadfast in pursuing the goal of free, fair, credible, and efficient elections in Guyana. The opposition-aligned commissioners are Vincent Alexander, Desmond Trotman and Charles Corbin.
The PPP General Secretary said amendments to the Representation of the People Act to allow for mandatory use of statements of poll in arriving at results, and posting of results on GECOM’s website as well as a new manual would all help to contribute to a transparent process.
The 2020 general and regional elections had been marred by multiple declarations with various figures for Region Four to the PPP’s electoral disadvantage until a total vote recount showed APNU+AFC had lost power.
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