The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) yesterday said it was disappointed by the failure of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) to address key concerns at a meeting held on Tuesday last.
According to a statement released after the PPP’s weekly press briefing, the clarifications offered by the commission at the meeting on November 3 “did not add anything new to what was already known by the PPP insofar as the holding of local government elections is concerned.”
The party said there were eight issues on which it had concerns, including the period for Claims and Objections versus a new cycle of continuous registration; the non-availability of lists for each constituency for use during the Claims and Objections period; the non-availability of sketch maps showing each constituency with clear lines of demarcation; voter education; and the status of preparation of NDCs for local government elections.
Since the meeting, Gecom has been running advertisements in the daily newspapers to inform electors how to proceed with making a claim, including the source documents needed and the steps to follow. In addition, Gecom has also published lists of the registration and sub-offices along with the electoral registrar and assistance electoral registrar for each local authority area.
During the meeting, which was attended by Gecom Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally along with Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield and a PPP team led by General Secretary of the PPP Clement Rohee, the party sought clarification on the number of registered voters in each constituency and municipality. However, the Gecom advertisements state that December 6 and December 13 will be the end dates, respectively, for claims and objections.
The PPP stated that it needed further clarification of the qualifying date of February 29, 2016. But Gecom had previously stated that pending an order by Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, the commission had unanimously decided in September that February 29, 2016 would be used as the date for the extraction of the voters list.
The party additionally wanted the Chairman and CEO to speak on the voting by the disciplined forces.
The PPP accused Surujbally of being “defensive and evasive in respect to questions and clarifications sought by the delegation,” while noting that of the eight issues of concern raised at the meeting, only one was addressed to the satisfaction of its delegation.
The party had previously called for Surujbally’s resignation as Chairman and had even stated that it may not contest local government elections with him as Chairman. It subsequently stated that while still calling for his resignation it will contest the upcoming polls.
“In the circumstances, the PPP delegation was disappointed with the answers provided particularly as regards the demarcation of boundaries, and the re-employment of persons as election officials who are known party activists belonging to the PNC/APNU/AFC,” the PPP stated.
The party continued, “The predisposition of the Chairman and CEO of Gecom to clam up and to skilfully dodge questions posed to them by the PPP delegation will only prove counter-productive and help exacerbate the already existing tension between the PPP and Gecom as well as the deep suspicions by the PPP about Gecom’s incompetence, bias and inability to supervise the holding of free and fair elections in Guyana.”
