GAIL ALEXAN­DER

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

A po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst has sug­gest­ed that the Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) should al­so have se­nior of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing com­mis­sion­ers, de­clare if they hold mem­ber­ship in po­lit­i­cal par­ties.

Dr Shane Mo­hammed’s idea comes two days af­ter EBC chair­man Mark Ramk­er­rysingh said fu­ture re­turn­ing of­fi­cer can­di­dates will be asked to de­clare their “par­ty al­le­giance and mem­ber­ship be­fore work­ing in polling sta­tions.”

The EBC, in a state­ment on Wednes­day, said it had re­ceived al­le­ga­tions from var­i­ous po­lit­i­cal par­ties about re­turn­ing of­fi­cers be­ing mem­bers of par­ties, which prompt­ed its de­ci­sion. How­ev­er, the de­ci­sion was con­demned by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and the lead­ers of oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ties.

Checks by Guardian Me­dia showed the Op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) led the num­ber of com­plaints filed against re­turn­ing of­fi­cers which the EBC re­ceived in the last two elec­tions.

For­mer PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford, who served from 2010 to 2018, yes­ter­day said as far as he re­called, the PNM nev­er made any of­fi­cial com­plaints to EBC re­gard­ing re­turn­ing of­fi­cers. Cur­rent gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings did not re­spond to ques­tions.

Fur­ther checks re­vealed the PNM filed a com­plaint with the EBC in 2013 about gov­ern­ment pro­gram­ming through­out the day on lo­cal TV sta­tions and for the Sep­tem­ber 2015 elec­tion, the PNM filed a com­plaint about dig­i­tal cam­paign­ing.

How­ev­er, checks showed most of the UNC’s com­plaints on re­turn­ing of­fi­cers were dur­ing the Au­gust 2023 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion (LGE) cam­paign.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­leged two EBC re­turn­ing of­fi­cers in the six San Fer­nan­do dis­tricts had “bla­tant po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion.” She claimed the two of­fi­cers “were reg­is­tered PNM mem­bers” and had called on both to state if they were and if so, they had to de­clare a con­flict of in­ter­est.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar asked the EBC to re­veal the cri­te­ria for se­lect­ing re­turn­ing of­fi­cers and re­quest­ed the names of all of them and their deputies to de­ter­mine if there were any of­fi­cers with po­lit­i­cal ties. Re­turn­ing of­fi­cers were al­so the source of oth­er UNC con­tentions.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar didn’t re­spond to a query yes­ter­day on if the move by the EBC would ad­dress her com­plaints about re­turn­ing of­fi­cers and what would be the im­pact on peo­ple’s rights.

In Sep­tem­ber 2023 af­ter the LGE, High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad threw out the UNC’s elec­tion pe­ti­tion for its Ari­ma North­east can­di­date, but al­so urged the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer and the EBC’s CEO to “en­gage in a crit­i­cal and com­pre­hen­sive re­view of the cur­rent process­es.”

Seep­er­sad said re­turn­ing of­fi­cers and elec­tion clerks should un­der­go struc­tured screen­ing and bias sen­si­ti­sa­tion. He said in­tense train­ing al­so need­ed to be en­gaged to re­in­force the need for strict ad­her­ence to the elec­toral reg­u­la­tions and guide­lines.

‘Fair ques­tion’

But po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Mo­hammed said the UNC’s com­plaints could well have had some lev­el of in­flu­ence on the EBC’s de­ci­sion re­gard­ing ap­pli­cants for the role of re­turn­ing of­fi­cers.

“The bot­tom line is the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion will be heav­i­ly con­test­ed and it’s per­ti­nent for EBC’s lead­er­ship to en­sure it’s con­duct­ed with the high­est lev­el of ac­count­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy,” he said.

Mo­hammed said ask­ing re­turn­ing of­fi­cers about their po­lit­i­cal al­le­giance and mem­ber­ship would en­gen­der a greater lev­el of trans­paren­cy, since it was im­por­tant for vot­ers to know elec­tion day staff was neu­tral.

“It’s very rel­e­vant to ask if you want free, fair process­es. Ac­count­abil­i­ty should be main­tained by both in­di­vid­ual and com­pa­ny,” he said.

But he said this should al­so be ex­tend­ed to oth­er se­nior EBC of­fi­cials.

“This trans­paren­cy should al­so ap­ply to EBC’s com­mis­sion­ers, se­nior staff, in­clud­ing the CEO and all who pre­side over elec­tion re­sults, who should de­clare if they are mem­bers of any par­ty,” Mo­hammed said.

Mo­hammed al­so said the Prime Min­is­ter’s con­cern about the PNM not be­ing con­sult­ed on the is­sue made it seem like the PNM was run­ning the EBC.

Po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath said the EBC’s state­ment on Wednes­day ap­peared to be dam­age con­trol af­ter the Prime Min­is­ter pub­licly re­vealed his con­cern.

For­mer EBC chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ramesh Nanan, who re­tired in 2017, opt­ed not to com­ment on the re­cent de­vel­op­ments re­gard­ing the com­mis­sion.

Oth­er UNC com­plaints

A Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer was al­so the is­sue for the UNC in the Lengua/ In­di­an Walk elec­tion pe­ti­tion which the par­ty lost. This in­volved a spe­cial bal­lot in favour of the UNC’s can­di­date Nicole Gopaul, which would have bro­ken a tie with the PNM’s can­di­date Aut­ley Granthume. The bal­lot was re­ject­ed by the Pre­sid­ing Of­fi­cer due to the fail­ure of the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer to place their ini­tials on it. A sec­ond re­count yield­ed the same re­sult as the first, with the EBC de­clar­ing that a by-elec­tion was re­quired. UNC’s le­gal team sug­gest­ed that the EBC should have cor­rect­ed the er­ror on the spe­cial bal­lot.

For the 2023 elec­tion, the UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar wrote the sec­re­tary gen­er­al of Cari­com and the Com­mon­wealth Par­lia­men­tary As­so­ci­a­tion ask­ing both to send ob­servers to mon­i­tor the Au­gust LG poll. At the time she said this would en­sure trans­paren­cy, fair­ness and in­tegri­ty.

In April 2024, Per­sad-Bisses­sar com­plained about the EBC’s con­stituen­cy bound­ary changes in 2015 (San Fer­nan­do West) and the pro­posed change in its 2024 re­port al­leg­ing, “The EBC and its mem­bers have al­ways been cor­rupt PNM par­ty groups.”