Local government elections are unlikely to occur until sometime early next year as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will need at least up to the end of this year to finalise the Official List of Electors (OLE).
The end-of-year scenario for the polls was conveyed by GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally in a meeting on Wednesday with Western diplomats who were seeking an update on the long-awaited polls.
The meeting was held on the same day that Parliament debated for six hours on a local government bill which is crucial to the holding of the polls which had not been run off since 1994. A release from GECOM yesterday said that Surujbally stressed to the Western envoys that assenting to the Local Authorities (Elections) (Amendment) Bill 2015 by President David Granger was pivotal to proceeding with preparations for the polls.
Those envoys who met with Surujbally in the GECOM boardroom comprised Derek Lambe, Head of Political, Press and Information of the European Union in Guyana, Bryan Hunt, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the United States of America in Guyana, British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn and Canadian High Commissioner Pierre Giroux. Surujbally was accompanied at the meeting by Vishnu Persaud, Deputy Chief Election Officer, and Juanita Barker, GECOM’s Legal Officer.
The two main parties in the current ruling coalition APNU and AFC while in opposition had lobbied vigorously for the holding of local government elections. In their 100-day programme they had made a commitment to name a date for the polls. That period has elapsed without this being done primarily because of legislative requirements and the need for GECOM to pronounce on its readiness for the polls.
The release from GECOM yesterday said that Surujbally gave the assurance that the Commission will begin the implementation of its Work Plan for the running off of Local Government Elections immediately after the outstanding legal requirements are passed by the National Assembly and assented to by President Granger.
It was also pointed out that included in the Bill passed on Wednesday are a few crucial provisions that must also be enacted for the elections to be carried out in an efficient manner, e.g. the movement of Nomination Day from 21 days to 50 days before Election Day. The GECOM release said that if this is not done, the existing timeframe would be insufficient for the designing and printing of 585 different ballot papers. The last local government election in 1994 did not have this degree of complexity.
Surujbally pointed out that one of the provisions in the bill passed on Wednesday is to clear the way for the extraction of the Preliminary Voters List from the National Register of Registrants (NRR), instead of from the 1992 Official List of Electors as is currently provided for in the law.
Consequent upon the passage of the Bill by Parliament, the preparations for, and the prerequisite conduct of Claims and Objections leading to the finalization of the Official Register of Voters would take GECOM at least to the end of 2015, GECOM stated.
The envoys were given the assurance that, notwithstanding the foregoing, the Commission’s Secretariat had already gone ahead with (i) training and selection of permanent and temporary staff to man the Offices where Claims and Objections will be done, (ii) identification of locations for the establishment of Offices for Electoral Registrars and Assistant Electoral Registrars, and (iii) the identification of persons to be trained and appointed to work as Returning Officers, Deputy Returning Officers, Clerks to the Returning Officers and Election Day Staff with specific reference to the conduct of Local Government Elections.
The release said that Surujbally gave the guarantee that immediately upon the passage of the outstanding legal lacunae and the relevant assent by President Granger, the Commission will give the green light for its Secretariat to move forward with the Work Plan for local government polls.
Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan and the government had originally signalled that they were anticipating local government elections before the end of the year.
Vishnu Persaud, Deputy Chief Election Officer (extreme right) making a point to – from left going clockwise – Derek Lambe, Head of Political, Press and Information of the European Union in Guyana, Canadian High Commissioner Pierre Giroux, British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn and Bryan Hunt, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the United States of America in Guyana. On Persaud’s right are Dr. Steve Surujbally, Chairman of GECOM and Juanita Barker, GECOM’s Legal Officer. (GECOM photo)
