GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):
THE CHAIRMAN of the Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally, has dismissed allegations made against him by three opposition nominated commissioners.
Surujbally told reporters that the Guyanese public wanted his organisation to "do its job unencumbered ... by those bent on derailing the democratic and electoral process."
He also dismissed criticisms of duplicity and manipulation of GECOM minutes as claimed by Commissioners Haslyn Parris, Lloyd Joseph and Robert Williams.
"I do think that a lot of these issues that are now coming to fore, in terms of my evilness ... have to do with the decisions that have been made: We are now moving towards an election.
"The question that should be asked and answered is why those accusations are being made in the first place? Why should perceived deficiencies in GECOM be embodied in my person? And where is the concept of collective responsibility?" Surujbally told reporters.
WITHDRAWING SERVICES
On Saturday Parris, Joseph and Williams told a news conference that they were withdrawing their services from GECOM, citing Surujbally's 'leadership style' which they said would inevitably push the country towards elections-associated violence.
Parris accused Surujbally of peddling half-truths, quarter-truths and non-truths to electoral stakeholders, including the international donor community.
But Surujbally countered Parris' criticisms saying "there are only truth and lies ... so I'm asking the question where have I lied to this nation.
"When I spoke with you the last time, I said that we were on track. I said that because the Secretariat was happy that they were on track (and) the international technical assessors said we were on track. They gave us some ideas where we could be having some slippages, I said that to this nation. Something happened in between," Surujbally said.
After weeks of speculation GECOM last week admitted it was unable to complete a number of critical tasks forcing the rescheduling of polls to the disappointment of the government and the main opposition People's National Congress Reform.
Concerning new dates for the elections, Surujbally said he was satisfied with any date after August 30 set by GECOM.
"There are people who said we can do it before the 4th of August. My people said no. The opinions of my people were then my opinions. That's how it goes and I'm not ashamed to say that."
The PNCR, Working People's Alliance (WPA) and Rise Organise And Rebuild (ROAR) Movement have consistently said that Surujbally had assured that the 2001 Official List of Electors (OLE) would be verified by a house to house exercise before it was used to generate a new voters' list.
"I've been hearing that. I've never saw it. It would not come from me, obviously not. You've heard me pontificate on this issue and you've heard me say I wanted the Commission to make a decision. What I do know, is that there are several aspects of verification, or purifying the list, that we need to take into consideration," Surujbally said.
He also denied opposition Commissioners claims that he misinformed President Bharrat Jagdeo that verification of the 2001 OLE is to blame for the delay in holding the elections.
"We were able to point out to him that that was not so, because, the verification exercise was not even in the electoral calendar that we are talking about, the recent one," the GECOM Chairman said.
He insisted that while verification of the OLE has to be resolved "politically," GECOM never intended to abandon it.
"No one has ever heard me say that verification is not going to be undertaken," Surujbally said.
CMC/te/pr/06
