With the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) preparing to launch a new continuous registration exercise, a new voters’ register is unlikely to be ready before next February, moving into the preparation cycle for next year’s general elections.
However, to date, the government remains committed to running off local government polls, which could affect the timeline for next year’s general elections. PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar said that the current situation is a “real borderline case,” but added that following the recent meeting between President Bharrat Jagdeo and Opposition leader Robert Corbin the parties still hope the poll could be held before the end of the year. “Time is really against us,” he, however, observed.
A Gecom official told Stabroek News that the commission will launch a new continuous registration exercise in September and it is estimated that with the associated activities it would be six months before the new register is ready. The official noted that it is not possible to hold the two elections in the same year, especially due to the costs associated with such an undertaking. The local government polls have been delayed since 1997 and recent attempts to complete long-in-the-works legislative reforms have been stalled.
The next general election is due before the end of next year. President Jagdeo has said that general elections must be held next year and he previously noted the “narrow window” available for the run off of the local government polls.
Under the Constitution, the life of parliament lasts five years from the date when it first meets and elections must be held within three months following its dissolution. However, in 2006 the government used its parliamentary majority to extend the life of the National Assembly by one month in order to avert a constitutional crisis, after Gecom had announced that it was no longer possible to hold elections by the constitutional deadline as a result of delays caused by processing new registrants. Opposition parties had opposed the move at the time, saying it was a breach of the Constitution.
While President Jagdeo had pointed to a “legal issue” preventing the holding of two elections in the same year, the Gecom official said that was not accurate. The official explained that in fact it would not be logistically possible and the commission has been so advised by its technical staff.
Gecom earlier this year completed its Claims and Objections to produce a Register of Voters but it has since put its public education campaign on hold as it awaits the completion of the work on the reforms. The commission had been seeking donor aid to support its public education programmes but the government has advised donors against releasing funds until it gives approval. As a result, after months of preparation to run off the local government polls, Gecom has halted all associated activities and is now awaiting word from the government.
At the parliamentary level, there has been no movement on the remaining reform legislation—Fiscal Transfers Bill, the Local Government (Amendment) Bill and the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill—still before a special select committee.
The Joint Task Force on Local Government Reform was set up in 2001 by agreement between President Jagdeo and then opposition leader Desmond Hoyte. The task force, made up of representatives of the PPP/C and the PNCR, had initially been given a one-year mandate for the completion of local government reforms but it has been reconstituted at least twice since then to complete the process.