EBC has some catching up to do
December 20, 2000
By Mary King
THE Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) is one of the fundamental pillars upon which our democracy is built. It allows us all to exercise the right given by the Constitution of the country to elect to office politicians, and as a result the political party of our choice. Hence, in its dealings the EBC has to be transparent and continually strive to maintain the confidence of the electorate in its ability to avoid, or not be party to, corrupt acts.
The confidence of a significant part of the electorate in the EBC has been shaken if not destroyed by events surrounding the recent election.
The public's attention was drawn to the possibility of electoral fraud by the revelation that an attempt was being made to pad the voters' list in the marginal constituencies, allegedly by the ruling party. This evidence was submitted to the EBC. Certain members of the last Parliament confirmed via the media that they were indeed approached to participate in such a scheme. Subsequently, the EBC admitted that it had amassed a list of people who in its view, had attempted to change their registration illegally. This list it passed on to the police who are at present engaged in prosecuting those who appear to have committed a criminal act.
The party in opposition allegedly carried out an investigation of the voters' list and presented to the EBC, evidence that the list contained entries that were illegal, in that people did not live and could not be living where they say they were.
The EBC's reported reply was that it was not concerned with any errors on the voters' list that did not occur during the official period, a few months ago, for voters to register. In other words, the EBC was not concerned with the integrity of the voters' list! Similar exercises were reportedly carried out by the party in government and a weekly newspaper with similar results. The EBC appear to have abdicated its responsibility as custodian of the electoral process.
A call was then made to the EBC to publish the list of transfers into the marginal constituencies. After the unfortunate death of its chairman, the EBC complied in part, by stating, that though there were large movements in and out of the marginal constituencies the net gain of the marginal constituencies was of the order of 200 voters each, apparently insignificant in the charge of voter padding.
EBC was less than transparent. The net increase in a particular constituency could be zero, yet the skew caused by the transfers, in and out, could shift the seat from one party to another. The EBC has a duty to investigate properly the authenticity of all transfers, to clean up the voters' list and of particular importance to do so in a way which restores our collective confidence in its ability to be fair, to be vigilant and efficient. Its claim of a lack of resources only confirm its inability to perform adequately.
When the call was made by the Leader of the Opposition for observers for the election this was done because he feared that the election process was at risk of being corrupted. He probably expected that these observers could prevent or at least expose these corrupt acts if they existed. The first major statement by the chairman of the Observer Team demonstrated that the team had no intention of really trying to find out whether the electoral process was fair.
According to its chairman, they were observers and not investigators. Hence, if they saw nothing, were shown nothing, then the process was fair and clean.
They walked about the country, entertained the actors in the electoral drama and reported that we were nice people and had run an exemplary election. All this while the police were arresting people for electoral fraud, a major controversy was underway about the eligibility of two candidates who had on oath perjured themselves when registering on nomination day.
Not a drum was heard as we prepared for the funeral of our electoral process. The visit of the observer team was a waste of scarce resources and their report that failed to mention these concerns is not worth the paper it was written upon.
The EBC in refusing to participate in condemning the fraudulent activities of the two candidates who had perjured themselves (giving false information on oath), in refusing to actively initiate action against them (as was done with the voters whose changes of registration were refused), in hiding behind legal technicalities, has destroyed its aura of fairness.
Its latest implication that the President does not need the official results from the EBC, that he can use information gleaned from the press while a recount is still proceeding to conduct his official task of the appointment of a government, suggests partiality on its behalf.
The EBC has five years in which to restructure itself and its electoral databases. The recently concluded census will be a crucial aid in this latter exercise. Any further deterioration of the Commission's credibility is another step towards anarchy. Today with the overwhelming evidence of state capture by the private sector the stakes are too high for complacency.
Trinicenter
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