The Guyana Elections Commission will be gazetting the 2015 General and Regional Election results along with the list of Parliamentarians provided by the APNU+AFC governing coalition this week with or without the submission of the opposition’s list.
Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield told Stabroek News yesterday that after discussions with both Gecom’s legal counsel, Juanita Barker, and PPP/C-appointed Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, the commission had resolved that there were no legal complications with the gazetting of the government MPs list without that of the opposition’s.
He said that the commission’s actions were all within the framework of the Representation of the People’s Act.
On Tuesday, the coalition submitted its list of 33 MPs to be reviewed by Gecom. Lowenfield acknowledged that the list was submitted past the 15-day period under the legislation governing the submission of the list which has to be gazetted prior to becoming official. President David Granger assumed office on May 16.
To date, the PPP has shown no indication that they are prepared to submit the names of potential MPs.
The party had provided Gecom with its MPs list just 48 hours after the swearing in of former President Donald Ramotar on December 3, 2011.
The party’s General Secretary Clement Rohee on Monday said that the PPP/C has yet to decide on whether they will even acknowledge their positon as the opposition in the National Assembly of which the party will maintain its 32 seats out of the 65.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday Rohee did not provide an update as to the current status of the MPs list.
At the party’s weekly press conference on Monday he had stated that extensive consultations will need to begin at the grassroots level.
Rohee said that the process was much like a free flow of discussions that will be taken into consideration prior to a preliminary list being composed.
At that point this preliminary list will be ventilated should members and components of the civic division have issues with any potential MPs. Rohee said that this process would occur multiple times until there was overall satisfaction.
He said that due to the large amount of persons that comprised the civic component on the List of Candidates, all persons needed to feel a “general consensus and a certain comfort level” when the final list was prepared and presented.
It doesn’t appear that this same system was used by the party in 2011 to determine its list of MPs.
