Press Release- 6th January, 2022

Government’s Proposal to Amend The Representation Of The Peoples Act (RoPA).

The Electoral Reform Group (ERG) acknowledges publicly its response to the Government’s release of draft amendments to the Representation of the People Act (RoPA). The Government of Guyana released the draft amendments on 5 November 2021, inviting stakeholders and the public to review, comment and propose additional amendments. Responding to the draft amendments, the (ERG) has prepared and submitted a comprehensive review to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. ERG’s submission is available upon request.

Three key points in the submission are detailed below.

Government leaders have said that the main motivation behind the proposed amendments is to impose measures, such as increased fines and jail time for election officials, to prevent a recurrence of the political crisis of March to August 2020 following the General Election. However, while we share the nationwide abhorrence of the fraudulent attempts following the 2020 general elections, focusing on the events of 2020 leaves unaddressed many electoral reform areas of deep concern to citizens. The effort to combat a long history of electoral fraud and political instability, and consequent reduced public confidence in election results in Guyana, requires a comprehensive electoral reform process.

Local and international observers and concerned Guyanese have repeatedly called for a more comprehensive overhaul of the electoral system. ERG believes the proposed RoPA amendments have missed an opportunity to generate broader electoral reforms and strengthen electoral administration. This is especially true for some key challenges that have not been addressed in the proposed RoPA amendments, such as: the composition of GECOM, the voters list, stronger constituency representation and accountability of members of Parliament to citizens, campaign financing and greater transparency, including the increased use of technology.

We suggest the proposed amendments be accompanied by justification on how they meet the perceived objective and how they can lead to more confidence in our future elections. Some of the proposed RoPA amendments are deficient, impractical, and even unjustified. These include: a polling station in ‘every village and locality’; division of Region 4; no increased penalties for election officials influencing the voting decision of an elector; no provision for the publication of list of electors or SOPs via electronic media; a minimum number of contested constituencies for a party, which undermines election participation by smaller parties; no increase or changes in the constituent representation.

As enshrined in Article 13 of Guyana’s Constitution, ERG is fundamentally committed to assuring the participation of citizens in the decision-making processes around electoral reform. We assure of our commitment to promoting dialogue as a means of achieving implementable and meaningful electoral reforms. The single most worrying omission from the current process is the absence of dedicated spaces for stakeholders to discuss and deliberate together, as a means of achieving national consensus on the proposed reforms. ERG strongly believes that electoral reforms need to benefit from a national consensus if they are to have the desired effect.