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Alarming and unacceptable how the GECOM Chair arrived at her decision against biometrics

Jan 27, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

On January 16, GECOM Chair Claudette Singh ruled against the use of electronic biometrics in the next elections, stating “With less than a year to go before these elections, and given the number of tasks that would need to be done before such a system can be properly introduced, … I am convinced that this is not feasible within the time presently available.”  Those of us who understand operations management and proper decision-making would ask the GECOM Chair to produce the project schedule which informed her conclusion.  A project schedule lists the tasks to be performed with their time intervals. For a matter as technical and specialized as the use of biometrics technology in elections, such a schedule could only be professionally produced by experts, especially those with experience with its use in other countries.

Claudette Singh, obviously, did not solicit nor seek such technical advice nor felt the need to. She saw herself as her own best counsel in biometrics technology and project management. It is alarming and unacceptable that such a pivotal and complex decision could be left to the reflections of a person materially ignorant of such matters.

After GECOM’s CEO Vishnu Persaud submitted in November last year his preliminary assessment of biometrics, in which he identified several key benefits, one would have expected that GECOM would have taken the obvious next step to request initial submissions from expert firms on a timeframe and other operational details, as the CEO’s report contained none of these.

Instead, it ridiculously decided that it would embark on public consultations, which it outlined only vaguely. But public consultations on what? What proper decisions on biometrics could the public make without a basic operational plan with a project schedule? If the experts should inform us that it would take, say, 18 months to implement such a system, then let the political parties and nation decide whether to postpone the elections and proceed with biometrics or not. But who knows for sure: introducing biometrics could take a short 6 to 7 months. As matters now stand, the nation does not have any such reliable knowledge.

Instead, what we have is the GECOM chair taking almost three months to arrive at her conclusions based on her own ill-formed and widely-distrusted opinions, feelings and biases. Adding to the farce, we have the PSC and FITUG rushing in to fully support the conclusions of the GECOM chairperson’s reflections. Maybe, they can show us their project schedules for the use of biometrics.

It is not too late for GECOM to seek preliminary project documents with a timeframe from international expert firms. It would allow the commission and the entire nation to make decisions based on a common set of information and knowledge. To proceed otherwise is irresponsible, reckless, and must not be accepted by the Guyanese people.

Sincerely,

Sherwood Lowe

(Alarming and unacceptable how the GECOM Chair arrived at her decision against biometrics)

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