The GECOM CEO must be treated like any other staff and be determinate for bias

Jul 03, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

It has been four months since Guyanese went to the polls and exercised their constitutional duty, in which the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has failed to declare the true winner of these elections unto this day. Firstly, by not using the true/originally prepared Statement of Polls, which is prepared at the place of Poll and signed by the Presiding Officer and all party agents also known as counting agents which were present at the count and even throughout the entire E-Day process on March 02, 2020.

However, the Guyana Elections Commission has executed a national recount of all ten electoral districts, which they took 31 consecutive days to complete. Mind you, at end of the day, each polling station on E-Day (March 02, 2020) completes their count in a matter of hours. Yet GECOM took 31 days to wrap up a national recount, the very same GECOM that does the count at place of poll on E-Day.

It is quite disgraceful how some of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) main staff have acted in regards to matters that had arisen since the election were held, namely the CEO of GECOM. When an E-Day staff attends training to conduct elections on E-Day investigations are done into their background to see if there is a chance that they were affiliated with any political party and that person gets fired immediately by the Deputy Returning Officer or Returning Officer. The question now to be asked therefore is what is the current Chief Elections Officer still doing in GECOM building and why is he still holding his post? Isn’t he supposed to be treated the very same way E-Day staff have been treated? The Chair of GECOM should immediately “fire” or demand a resignation from the CEO for he has shown no sign of neutrality and honesty, which are key qualifications in order for him to hold the office he currently holds.

Yours truly,
Randy Da Silva