GECOM’s CEO distances self from Legal Officer’s submission on need for separate voters’ list for General and Regional Elections

Mar 22, 2025 News

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Kaieteur News- Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Vishnu Persaud has denounced recent submissions made by Kurt Da Silva, the Commission’s legal officer, in the court case challenging the commission to engage better voter verification process.

The case was filed by People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member Carol Smith-Joseph who sought judicial review of the process, citing the need for verification of the addresses of registrants.

In her application, the PNCR member claimed that checks at addresses provided proved empty lots, or dilapidated or abandoned houses in which no one lives or has lived for years; the addresses exist but no one at the address knows the Applicant/Registrant; the address is generic; for example, it may be just the name of the village or town area. She fears that the integrity of General and Regional Elections and Local Government Elections and their results will be questionable, inaccurate and not credible.

On Monday, when Da Silva appeared before Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, he contended that the verification issue cannot be addressed, in the manner suggested by Joseph as that suggestion effectively reimposes a residency requirement for Guyanese citizens for General Elections even though the Court has expressly said that this would be unconstitutional.

Da Silva had suggested that while GECOM is not in agreement with Joseph’s contention on the issue of verification, he does see a need for there to be a separate list of electors for Regional and General Elections.

Da Silva posited that the change must be to the statutory provision to ensure that the provisions governing the conduct of the elections comply first with the Constitution.

As such, it would now be necessary for ballots for General Elections and Regional Elections to be printed separately.

GECOM’s legal officer submitted that it would also be necessary for separate Lists of Electors to be generated for the two elections, since some persons would qualify to be electors for General Elections but not be qualified to be electors for Regional Elections; for example, Guyanese citizens residing outside of Guyana.

According to him, this means that Claims and Objections (C&O) in relation to those lists would be based on different criteria, with residence being a factor for Regional Elections but not in relation to Guyanese citizens for General Elections.

However, hours after Da Silva’s submissions were made public; GECOM’s CEO released a statement distancing himself from Da Silva’s utterance and submission. Persaud said he is compelled to denounce the submissions made by the Legal Officer.

Persaud noted that Da Silva’s submissions which were made during legal proceedings to which his name as respondent were unauthorized.

“It is unfortunate that the pronouncements were made by the Legal Officer who purportedly was representing me. Unfortunately, the submissions of the Legal Officer do not represent my instructions given to him,” the CEO said adding that the pronouncements were not only unauthorised by him but were also disconnected from the court matter at hand.

The CEO warned that Da Silva’s pronouncements can lead to potential confusion and misinterpretation regarding preparations for upcoming elections.

“It is crucially important for me to clarify that the Legal Officer was not acting on my instructions. In this regard, the unauthorised pronouncements conflicts with my positions as set out in the Affidavit I signed as a named respondent in the court matter,” Persaud added.

As the Statutory Officer who is responsible to lead the Commission’s Secretariat in the conduct of all General, Regional and Local Government Elections in Guyana,  Persaud said that he rejects the pronouncements made by the Legal Officer considering that they are in total contrast with the manner in which lists of electors and ballots have been prepared for decades, up to the 2020 General and Regional Elections, and nothing included in the pronouncements was ever discussed by the Commission as far as he knows.

“As far as l am aware, no stakeholder has ever canvassed for splitting of the ballot, nor for preparing separate lists of electors for the General and Regional Elections. It is my considered view that the Legal Officer’s pronouncements carry severe implications for preparations for the upcoming elections by creating uncertainty among stakeholders, including voters, political parties, and international observers,” the CEO emphasized.

Further, the CEO hopes that the Legal Officer’s pronouncements will be viewed as an aberration.

It is unclear whether the CEO reviewed Da Silva’s written submission which included the pronouncement before it was presented to the court. Notwithstanding, Opposition representative on the Commission Vincent Alexander in an invited comment told Kaieteur News that he finds the situation strange.

He noted that the usual course of action is to have the document reviewed before it is submitted to the Court.

“I also find it strange that even after the matter was heard on Monday, GECOM held meetings on Tuesday and Thursday and no issue about the submissions were raised, until an article was publicized about the submissions… Then the CEO hurriedly put out a release debunking the submissions,” Alexander said.

He continued “Another strange thing is that the press statement should have never come from the CEO but the Chairperson through the Public Relations Unit. My suspicion is that the CEO might have been in a hurry to correct the perceived misstep to appease a certain faction…”

Meanwhile, Government appointed Commissioner Sase Gunraj told Kaieteur News that while he is not privy to all the information in the case. He does not believe that the attorney would have stuck to the written submissions. Gunraj, who is also a lawyer, noted there were different systems adapted under different CEOs and Chairpersons of the Commission.

“We had one time that lawyers were hired without any involvement of the Commission and they just turn up to the meetings…” Gunraj said sharing his general view on how the Commission is managed.

(GECOM’s CEO distances self from Legal Officer’s submission on need for separate voters’ list for General and Regional Elections)

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• CEO, GECOM, Legal Officer, List of Electors, verification

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