Georgetown: The government said it finds it strange that the alleged flawed calculations by Chief Elections Officer Goocool Boodoo at the 2011 general elections is purportedly the reason advanced now for his removal. On July 16, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) voted against the renewal of Boodoo’s contract.
“Yet it was incontrovertible that the same Commission was prepared to disenfranchise over 7,000 Guyanese voters, in its abortive attempt to close Claims and Objections. You might recall the strenuous objections that had to be made to overtake, overcome Chairman Steve Surjubally’s intention to close Claims and Objections that led to the extension during which 7,000 additional Guyanese voters were enfranchised,” Dr. Luncheon said. “Should the commission have resigned? Should the Secretariat been sacked or removed?” he questioned.
Boodoo was accused of using the wrong formula to calculate the 2006 and 2011 elections to give the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) an edge. Dr. Luncheon observed however, that both incidents were corrected noting that before the Constitutional Amendments that dealt with the Elections Commission it “probably would have been possible.”
He added that records would show the failure of free and fair elections prior to 1992 and that the constitutional reform corrected the flaws.
The HPS also pointed to the difference between GECOM’s post and pre Constitutional Amendments and the rectification and current provision which corrected those two incidents. Possible flaws had contributed to certification of elections as being free and fair by local and international observers, he said. “Those amendments were designed to do a job. It is odd that having done so, that the Commission and its Chairman would turn around and try to impose the type of sentiment among Guyanese about the functions discharged by the then Chief Elections Officer,” he said.
“When the checks and balances work we ought not to turn around and behave as if they didn’t. The purposes of Constitutional Reform were realised and we should thank the drafters and the self same Commission for enforcing them,” Dr. Luncheon declared.
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