Ethnic balance desirable in elections staff selection- EAB
For as long as ethnic distrust remains the unresolved and contentious issue it is now in the country, the Elections Commission must in future seek to ensure race balance in its selection of elections staff, the EAB says. In its report on the December 15 elections, the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) said it was difficult to fathom how out of 115 staffers at the Commission, only 17 persons were of Indo-Guyanese descent when that group comprises around 52% of the national adult population. In its recommendations section, the EAB said that with the call for affirmative action to address the question of racial imbalance in the staff complements of both the public and private sectors one would have thought that it would have prompted the Commission to be more sensitive to the issue of "ethnic equity". "EAB does not seek to promote the idea of exact demographic representation among election staff - far from it. In fact, we welcome the day when applicants for any such job might be selected only on the basis of their qualifications", the report offered. However, it said that as ethnic distrust prevails, as a national institution the Commission must take note of it to promote much needed confidence in the electoral process. Assessment of the selection of Presiding Officers also revealed a ratio of Indo-Guyanese which did not reflect the national make-up. Only 34% of POs were Indo-Guyanese. For assistant POs, Indo-Guyanese held 19% of the positions in Region Four where they comprise 43% of the population. The EAB also took the Commission to task for not doing enough to attract persons from non-governmental organizations to serve as polling day officials. According to the EAB, in 1992 the Commission deliberately encouraged volunteers from non-governmental groups as well as the private and professional sectors to serve. "In this way the process was managed by some of the most competent persons in the country", the report noted. In 1997, the EAB said the Commission did make some efforts to attract these persons but no mechanisms were put in place to ensure that they bore fruit. As a result, appeals for polling day workers were confined solely to newspaper advertisements. The situation was even more critical because the Commission needed to employ 3,000 more persons than in 1992 because of the hike in the number of polling stations. In its recommendations, the EAB said that religious groups, trade unions, the private sector and other non-governmental organizations were well placed to provide polling day staff of quality. The EAB urged that more aggressive efforts be made in future to tap these resources for polling day duties. The EAB also recommended that better ethnic balance could be attained if a larger pool of qualified persons were recruited. It also urged that an indepth analysis of the key success factors linked to the various staff positions be done. Objective tests can then be crafted. The EAB asserted that polling day staff cannot be considered competent if they were unable to add simple numbers and it suggested that mathematical tests be taken by these officers in future. Also recommended was that the Commission undertake a review of the performance of the elections officials on December 15. "Those who did not perform should be identified to prevent mediocrity being recycled for yet another election", the EAB added. 
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