With historic local government elections in the air, the Guyana Elections Commis-sion (Gecom) has revealed that the Disciplined Forces will vote on March 8th but the list of candidates for the districts has not been officially released as yet.
According to section 51 of the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, the returning officer shall, not later than the 44th day before election day, cause a notice to be published of the titles and symbols of the lists approved by him and the names of the candidates on those lists. Local government elections for the general public are slated for March 18th. Stabroek News understands that the lists will be published by tomorrow.
In an ad in the Sunday Stabroek yesterday, Gecom said that the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Prison Service will vote on March 8. It said that the respective Lists of Electors who are members of the Disciplined Forces is currently being prepared by Gecom in collaboration with senior representatives from the three forces.
Nomination Day for the elections was on January 26 and while some groups have confirmed receiving correspondence from Gecom that their lists of candidates was approved, the major parties were reluctant to disclose their candidates and there is virtually no activity on social media regarding their candidates.
On the other hand, for the smaller groups, some have begun to promote themselves and candidates on social media sites such as Facebook.
The last local government elections were held on August 8, 1994 and although the law stipulates that they are to be held every three years, this has not happened. The March 18th polls will be held under a new hybrid system of Proportional Represen-tation (PR) and First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) and the number of municipalities being contested have increased to nine with 62 Neighbourhood Democra-tic Councils (NDCs) also being in play.
The new system is likely to offer independent candidates stronger chances of winning seats unlike general elections where the two main parties dominate because of proportional representation. There could also be room for alliances between either of the two major parties and independent candidates or groups. For example, at the level of the Mayor and City Council this can prove interesting. The council is currently comprised of A Good and Green Guyana (GGG) with 12 seats, the PNC with 10 seats and the PPP/C with 8 seats. For all intents and purposes, the GGG is defunct so that its seats will be up for grabs by APNU+AFC and the PPP/C. However, there are also independents like social activist Mark Benschop who can possible shake things up. Others are also contesting single constituencies in the city and could possibly capture seats. The independents can therefore hold the balance between the two likely major groups on the council: APNU+AFC and the PPP/C.
Under the hybrid system, 50% or half of the number of councillors of each Local Authority Area will be elected through the PR component and the other 50% through the FPTP or Constituency component.
Only voluntary groups and political parties can contest in the PR aspect of LGE and these groups and parties submit a list and seats are allocated based on the votes gained with the party having to select their councillors from the list submitted.
Voluntary groups and political parties can also contest any or all of the seats under the FPTP component of the elections. Further, under this component, an individual candidate can contest for a seat in the constituency in which he/she is registered and resides. The candidate(s) must be living in the constituency being contested.
