Allow Civil Society and GECOM to roll out consultations on Guyana’s first genuine referendum on electoral reform

This was published as a letter to the editor in the Stabroek News on 19th May, 2022.

It is to be taken as a positive move by the opposition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) to say it would be formally recommending to the government that a broad-based national consultation on electoral reform be held. https://demerarawaves.com/2022/05/17/apnuafc-to-formally-ask-president-ali-for-national-consultations-on-electoral-reform/. They did well to justify their delay by listening to civil society. So it is a welcome development when APNU+AFC said the electoral reform process must include the in-depth involvement of experts on electoral laws, electoral systems, elections technologies, and elections management. This is indeed a movement up from their harping on the voters’ list and PPP/C rigging being the cause of their 2020 elections loss.

The sheer immorality of known election riggers asking for reform without themselves reforming rankles me, and definitely will rankle President Ali too. Therefore the only genuine “One Guyana” approach the President can take is the course of Cheddi Jagan’s legendary choice of walking with the people, and allow Civil Society and GECOM to roll out, with consultations, Guyana’s first genuine referendum on the matter, with well-publicized education on the issues at stake. Here are some important ones:

1. Should the party list leader instead of the voters choose who should represent the people in legislative and local government assemblies?

2. Should a party be allowed to fire a member of parliament or regional councillor for voting against the party line even if the constituency is in sync with the MP or councillor?

3. Should the power to appoint and dismiss governments lie in another body, as in other CARICOM countries, or should our president be allowed to retain the power to have to dismiss his own government as currently the case in Guyana?

4. Should political parties have transparent democracy in electing their leaders, so that the wider electorate may be more confident in their choices?

5. Should political parties be allowed to form coalition governments without declaring the intention before elections?

6. Should GECOM be reformed to include civil society (like in Jamaica) and transparent recruitment, and to move away from the temporary Carter-Price formula of effectively having only the two main parties choose the commissioners?

A system for such a referendum already exists in the studies and experimentations of the Electoral Reform Group (ERG). The current head of the ERG, Dr. Desmond Thomas, has also written a book on Electoral Systems, especially for Guyana, where he classifies electoral systems under the choosable characteristic priorities of accountability, inclusiveness, proportionality, stability, and transparency; and which he launched before the March 2020 elections. https://www.amazon.com/Electoral-System-Reform-Diverse-Nation-ebook/dp/B083ZJCBDS. Experienced people in local and other elections, like that of the first head of the ERG, Lawrence Lachmansingh, can also be easily found and accessed. All parties should unite for holding a referendum for us the people to determine our destiny.