GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally yesterday said that the elections commission has made concerted efforts in preparation for upcoming local government polls, while saying it has been navigating unknown territory.
He was speaking at a Guyana Elections Commis-sion (GECOM) forum at City Hall aimed at sensitising the public about elections preparations and the new local government system.
Surujbally told the forum, which was poorly attended, that there were murmurs that since the upcoming elections will be complex, GECOM should have placed more emphasis on enforcing its public awareness programme. But, according to him, the elections commission has made a concerted effort to honour its obligations, including house-to-house registration and ID card distribution. In addition, he noted that field staff attached to the commission has been trained and undertook additional retraining periods so that they can “go out and enthuse the public,” in rural and urban areas about the entire electoral process.
Deputy Chief Elections Officer Calvin Benn stated that at the end of the Claims and Objections period-the Claims period terminates on Monday February 1st, and the Objections period comes to an end on February 8-GECOM is hoping that there will be 20,000 plus new registrants. While noting that it is very critical to have all systems in place for the elections, Benn reiterated that at the end of the Claims period, GECOM will not be conducting registration of new electors, transfers for persons who have moved to new areas and corrections of the particulars of electors.
This year, local government elections will be held in seventy-one (71) Local Authority Areas within the administrative regions of Guyana, with the exception of Region 8 (Potaro/Siparuni). Those 71 areas comprises of the 65 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), the City of Georgetown and the five (5) towns, being Anna Regina, Linden, New Amsterdam, Rose Hall and Corriverton.
Each Local Authority Area will have a council with a specific number of councillors and each area will be divided into a specific number of constituencies. A constituency is defined as a ward, part of or a specifically demarcated part of a local authority area comprising a body of voters for elections who may wish to elect a councillor for that specific ward, part or section of the local authority area.
The upcoming elections will use a mixed system of Proportional Representation (PR) and First –Past-The-Post (FPTP); the former in which a list of candidates is provided for a group or political party and the latter being a winner-takes–all system in which a candidate is only required to receive the highest number of votes in his/her favour to be elected. The Mixed System provides for 50% or half of the number of seats for PR and 50% or half of the number of seats for FPTP to elect members for the Local Authority Area. The Mixed System also provides for the involvement of individuals, voluntary groups as well as the political parties.
For Georgetown, there are 30 seats on the Council which will be contested in the elections; therefore 15 of that number will be contesting the elections under the PR system and the other 15 under the FPTP system. Hence, Georgetown is made up of (fifteen) 15 constituencies, for example, Constituency 1-Kingston East /West, Thomas Lands, Non-Pariel Park, Cummingsburg, Alberttown and Queenstown.
According to GECOM, persons wishing to make any clarifications relating to the up-coming Local Government Elections can do so by contacting to commission’s hotline numbers: 225-0277-79, 226-1651 or 223-6950. (Alva Solomon)