Pivotal for any upcoming ‘free and fair elections void of acute chaos, controversy and condemnation’ is the implementation of a new Identity Document Issuance System (IDIS) at the Parliamentary Elections Office (PEO).
How imperative is the implementation of this new IDIS; and how can any form of lack in the implementation of the IDIS put the elections at risk for credibility?
What aspect does IDIS play in the electoral process; and what are the requirements and timeframe for ensuring effective implementation of the new IDIS?
Grasping the magnitude of the impact of those concerns about the IDIS on the outcome of elections, should heighten curiosity and caution about constitutional democracy; as it also heightens the relevance of the article: Must Grenadians Continue to Tolerate a Questionable Electoral System?
Prominent in the electoral process is the entitlement of a person to vote, to be registered to vote, to be issued a Voter Identification Card to vote, and to be allowed a secret ballot when voting. These rights are under the legislative framework of the 1993 Representation of the People Act (RPA), with its pertinent regulations and amendments, pursuant to the entrenched provisions of Grenada’s 1974 Constitution.
Section 8 of the RPA (Cap. 286A of the 2010 Revised Laws) establishes: “… for the purposes of registration …. a single, uniform, non-discriminatory, centralised, interactive computerised voter registration system …. administered and maintained by the Supervisor of Elections (‘SoE’) ….”
This section further dictates that the System shall “serve as the single system for storing and managing the list of electors throughout Grenada; contain the name and such information as is provided for …. of every person who is qualified and registered to vote in Grenada; and assign a voter registration number that is unique to every person registered ….”.
Section 8 also warns: “All personal data collected and entered into the System shall only be used for the purposes of this (‘RPA’) Act and in accordance with the provisions of this Act/(‘RPA’)”.
The IDIS must be regarded as akin to, or it contributes the ‘operational software/main server’ of the Computerised Voter Registration System (CVRS). The need for equipping the PEO with a new IDIS was hinted at least since 10 January 2020 through a press conference by SoE Elvis Morain about the replacement of expired Voter Identification (ID) Cards and about pertinent issues presented to the office of the Attorney-General for amendments to the RPA accordingly.
The plan for procuring the new IDIS was unfolded or went in gear on 21 May 2024 with a series of public consultations on the voter registration process, scheduled for throughout the State including Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Those stakeholders’ consultations were halted in early June 2024 by the new SoE Arthur Pierre upon taking office, in less than a week. Whose and what instructions prompted the halt to the consultations, and for what reason/s?
This information is still unknown; and the full scenario must be disquieting and questioning, as it runs the risk of the Grenadian-people facing an ‘elevated compromised’ general elections than what has ever been experienced, recorded and detested, post (March 1979 – October 1983) People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) when ‘democracy and elections were rejected’.
The 13 March 2018 elections provide a case study in recent history on factors which questions the ‘fairness and admiration’ of the successive win by Keith Mitchell with the New National Party (NNP); referring also to the reactions by Political Scientists at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in Barbados.
In exploring Lessons from the 2018 Grenada Election, Cynthia Barrow Giles comments, as appears on Barbados Today’s Post of 20 March 2018: “…. even as the Prime Minister (‘Keith Mitchell’) must be congratulated for this phenomenal feat (‘winning all fifteen parliamentary seats’), there are continuing burning constitutional and by extension electoral issues that these results raise …. .”
Wendy Grenade writing on Party Politics in Grenada: 2018 Elections and Beyond during the same time, reflects on the occasion and offers “insight into possible explanations” for the outcome, and seeks to determine and declare on : “What does all this mean for governance and democracy and party politics beyond 2018?”
The 14 March 2018 reports, with compelling and meaningful recommendations, of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Election Observation Mission and Organisation of American States (OAS) Electoral Experts Mission, about the circumstances related to the 2018 elections, speak volumes.
Taking credit and comfort in those preliminary reports by the Overseas Observers, the humiliated National Democratic Congress (NDC) conveys in its June 2018 HeartBeat article: “The many deficiencies in the RPA and in the operations of the electoral office allowed the powers-that-be to manipulate the system to its advantage. The machinations of the operatives of the NNP within the system helped the NNP to win the elections …. That is why the NDC says we should not have another round of voting before the system is fixed.”
Furthermore, NDC’s newly elected leader, Mrs. Franka Alexis-Bernardine, at its 03 November 2019 convention, declares in the rally for the occasion that Cambridge Analytica assisted the NNP to win the March 2018 elections.
It was also reported on the NOWGRENADA website that the new political leader who replaced NDC’s previously elected leader taking the party into the 2018 elections, Mr. Victor Nazim G. Burke, said in the inaugural speech: “All manner of fiddling went on but we should have turned around and risen up as a people.
They could have never gotten away with this — in Barbados or Trinidad — they could have jumped out in the streets in the thousands. We have to learn to defend our democracy like that, we cannot just stand up and take we death like sheep.”
With the level of blatant abuses, particularly breaches of the RPA (primarily sections 6, 24, 58 and 59) about the ‘qualification and permission’ to vote, the April 2018 article Could Grenada’s 2018 Voting Be Declared Unethical And Illegal? summons the citizens to pressure the authority for Electoral Justice; whilst noting that NDC could also be culpable for the many irregularities which occurred on the elections, but was outplayed by NNP.
The illustrated Sorry State Of Grenada Voter Registration System, as is and seems worsening, thru the previously internet-circulated article entitled by the same declaration, must be stupefying especially in consideration of the forms of pronouncement, protest and petition had by the NDC when in opposition.
This includes a public march on the PEO on 22 February 2017, as part of a ‘struggle for Integrity, to protect Democracy and for a Free and Fair Election’.
It must never be forgotten moreover, about the 10 May 2022 Open Letter written by Dickon Mitchell to SoE Morain, which specifies ‘complaints and warnings’ about the registration of voters and the availability of voter identification cards, and which points to the unremedied concerns “flagged in the report of the OAS Election Observer Mission dated 14 March 2018”.
The 23 June 2022 ruling NDC led by Dickon however, has not evidenced any ‘seriousness and imperativeness and firmness’ towards effecting necessary improvements “with the management of the electoral process”.
This is the reality even as ‘ignorant’ SoE Pierre, appointed on the recommendation of the NDC administration, is faced with an understaffed PEO and a faulty Registration System / CVRS.
Is the lack of any observable seriousness, imperativeness, and firmness about advancing the Electoral System, based on Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell statements in Parliament on 18 December 2024 thus: “There is no election that will be called in Grenada in 2025 …. we are only now getting started …. You ain’t see nothing yet”?
What then is the timetable for getting started with the PEO and having it ready for the next elections? Is not the “Voters Registration System Replacement” in the PEO, in terms of the implementation of the new IDIS, a priority for the Government despite the allocation of over four million dollars in the 2025 Budget for this repeated item in the yearly Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure?
Would it suffice and be pleasant to have preparations for the next elections and to conduct those elections, using the old ‘malfunctioning and unreliable’ CVRS software; if the new IDIS is not ‘fully and effectively’ implemented, but that elections were to be called any time from now to when due in 2027?
The related article Supervisor Pierre Staying Course on Grenada Electoral System raises the dilemma in understanding what course SoE Pierre is on, with priority in the preservation of the integrity of the electoral process and the independence of the Office.
This is indeed a baffling case, especially since Pierre has not been ‘transparent, forthright, and accountable’ thus far on the ‘pointed and critical’ affairs of the PEO, but with the excuses of needing time and resources to research on pertinent matters.
Particularly, Pierre has not presented to the general public any worthwhile information on the series of repeated crashes of the main servers of the CVRS as is presently, and on the implementation of the new IDIS or software mechanism for the CVRS.
By SOE Pierre not informing adequately on these issues, and with the ‘preventions and disruptions and frustrations’ caused for eligible individuals to be registered, it must be regarded as a dereliction of duty, within the RPA provisions (at least, section 12 on continuous registration of electors and section 14 on continuous revision and publication of current list of electors).
What are the reasonable and genuine suspicions or inferences about the implementation of the new IDIS, considering the elaborate involvements and corresponding timelines required?
How ‘deliberate and disingenuous’ is the SoE/PEO along with the NDC administration regarding the approach in implementing the new IDIS?
An aspect of the approach by the powers-that-be would be the launch on the population of a string of legislative amendments for the new IDIS, on the verge of the next elections, leaving no room for Civil Society in particular to study and to object accordingly even with judicial redress.
Further to the need for thorough consultation and information on the new IDIS, consideration must be made for the tendering process for the IDIS according to the Procurement Legislation, for the installation and testing periods of the IDIS and for the (re) registering of all the eligible voters for the elections.
With all such factors, the authority may already set to use the same old System/CVRS for the next elections, with the seeming view of Dickon that ‘any form of identification can be used for voting’.
To date, there is no public awareness about the capacity and configuration of the new IDIS to be implemented; and as to whether or not this new IDIS would be similar in the scope of applications of the present System.
How robust would the specifications and features of the new IDIS be, in light of any ‘limitations and losses’ which the PEO/SoE encountered with the administration and maintenance and security of the first (CVRS) System?
How consistent would the new IDIS be with the RPA, including with respect to ‘having all personal data collected and entered into the System shall only be used for the purposes of the Act/RPA’?
Would the new IDIS software be about adopting the philosophy of Grenadian, Dr. Justine C. Pierre, Labour Market and Migration Consultant, on “Data-Driven Democracy: The Science Behind Predicting Election Victories in the Caribbean and Developing Nations”?
Would the new IDIS be about facilitating the World Bank’s Electronic Government Regional Integration Project (EGRIP) and Online voting for the Diaspora and holders of Citizenship By Investment (CBI) passports?
Should the Grenadian people settle, without Civil Society making any loud cry, about the thought that ‘the Electoral System will not be fixed until Dickon’s NDC administration outdo with envy, whatever damage Keith’s NNP have already done to it, for the NDC party to achieve its political trajectory for the nation?
Recall the article, NDC Constitution Change Brings More Chaos To Grenada Electoral System, which alludes to intention of the Government to formalize Campaign Financing, even as former Prime Minister Keith Michell had to defend against allegations on the international Arabic channel, Al Jazeera, that NNP received finances through CBI projects for enabling it to win the March 2018 general elections.
J. K. Roberts