Elections and limitations

RECOUNTS are finally over, but the need for reform remains.

Before the poll, Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) officials were confident. Chief Elections Officer Fern Narcis-Scope went so far as to boast of its having been modernised.

“We have to innovate,” Ms Narcis-Scope said. “We’ve used the website in an innovative and new way.”

Spokesman Bobbi Rogers assured, “This department is ready.”

The EBC chairman himself, Mark Ramkerrysingh, said it would all be a “seamless process.”

Long lines and widespread complaints of a slow pace told a different tale. As did a recount process that eclipsed the time it took to count all 41 seats.

Even the way the EBC handled the matter of informing President Paula-Mae Weekes of the result betrayed problems. When the mathematics became clear, the commission still felt unable to communicate with Ms Weekes until all six recounts were completed.

We note the challenges of covid19, as well as the EBC’s suggestion that legal action by the Opposition obstructed it.

Even so, both were anticipated by the EBC itself.

Before August 10, Ms Narcis-Scope, Ms Rogers and Mr Ramkerrysingh all referred to the challenges of covid19. And Ms Narcis-Scope, in particular, expected legal issues.

“It’s part of the job now,” she said. Indeed.

The EBC regulates itself. But that independence does not mean it is unable to speak to the Executive. For instance, it routinely participates in the budget. And it submits reports to Parliament recommending boundaries.

But the scope of the dialogue goes further.

Ms Narcis-Scope spoke of personally drafting policy suggestions in relation to campaign finance legislation. She also co-wrote a strategic plan for the EBC, approved by the Government in 2015.

Any doubt the lines of communication are open was cleared up in the Parliament earlier this year, when MPs were told the EBC had asked Cabinet to amend the law to allow it to submit a report late.

Could similar action not have been taken in relation to absentee voting? The matter of voting time? The need for an overhaul to digitise and hence speed up vote-counting and communications from returning officers, if not voting itself?

None of this absolves the Executive of responsibility.

It was never good enough to say people outside the country cannot vote and leave it at that, while at the same time threatening to challenge the paperwork of a candidate on the basis of whether that candidate was in the country or not.

The election has been fought and won and the majority has prevailed.

But with two more elections on the horizon, the question of the powers of the EBC, the lack of election observers, the nuances of the nomination process, the inefficiencies of the poll, the EBC’s accountability and transparency and its attitude to questions on any of these – all demand urgent review.

Right now, it seems in one sense the EBC was the biggest loser.