Parliament is to be dissolved on Saturday, February 28th, President Donald Ramotar said in a brief address to the nation last evening.
Elections now have to be held within three months of February 28th.
Ramotar had come in for criticism for not dissolving Parliament at the same time he issued a proclamation naming May 11th, 2015 as the date for general elections.
Various postulations had been made as to why Parliament was not being dissolved and Ramotar last evening advanced another reason.
He said he wanted to ensure the completion of a new round of continuous registration. In his statement he said “As you are aware, last November I prorogued the Tenth Parliament of Guyana.
“As I explained then, that action was taken to allow the parties in Parliament additional opportunities to talk and hopefully resolve the pressing National issues that were confronting us.
In addition, I wanted to give GECOM time to have another round of Continuous Registration to enfranchise those persons, who, through no fault of their own, did not have the source document to be registered.
Unfortunately the opposition refused to dialogue and I was left with no option but to call elections for May 11, 2015.
“I did not dissolve the Parliament at the same time because had I done so, the claims and objections period which also allows for transfers would have been truncated.
“Were the latter to have occurred, thousands of Guyanese voters who changed their place of residence would not have been able to obtain their transfers and this could have led to them being disenfranchised. “The Claims and Objection period ended last Sunday, February 22, 2015, clearing the way for me to dissolve the Parliament.”
It is unclear why continuous registration would have been hindered by the dissolution of Parliament.
In addition to the proclamation dissolving the 10th Parliament, a separate proclamation will be promulgated dissolving the 10 regional democratic councils.
Commentators had argued that February 10th, 2015 was the last day that parliament could have remained suspended based on the prorogation order issued by Ramotar on November 10th since the maximum six-month period should have been counted from the August 10th recess date.
