Commissioners from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), nominated by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) are peeved that services cannot be provided in six Local Authority Areas (LAA) because run-off elections have not been held.
At a press conference held on Tuesday, commissioner Bibi Shadick read a letter to the media that she wrote the Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield, informing him that it has been two months since the May 18 Local Government Elections (LGE) and that the areas have been unable to function.
The letter stated too that she was “now seeking to formally inform GECOM” that the mayor, chairman and councillors of the six LAA have not been elected “due to an equality of votes cast in favour of two nominated councillors in each case.”
The six LAA areas are: the municipality of Mabaruma in Region 1 and the neighbourhood democratic councils (NDCs) of Malgre Tout/Meer Zorgen in Region 3, Industry/Plaisance in Region 4, Woodlands/ Farm and Woodlands/Bel Air in Region 5 and Gibraltar/Fyrish in Region 6.
Shadick said she was yet to receive a response from the CEO, but the matter was discussed at the statutory meeting for commissioners.
The tied elections in the LAA is now in the courts after the PPP/C challenged the decision of the Ministry of Communities to make unilateral decisions on the appointments of persons to head these bodies. The court of Justice Diana Insanally has since issued an interim order quashing the appointments.
Asked about a candidate for mayorship being described as Mayor of Mabaruma, Shadick responded that “legally there is no mayor.”
She said the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan “took it upon himself to select people and this is not according to the law.”
According to Shadick, there are matters before the court, challenging those moves and that there is an order nisi in place, for it to be left as it is. There is also an order of mandamus, informing the town clerks about taking steps to hold the run-off elections but the matter has not been completed as yet. Further, she said the run-off elections are not new and noted that at the last LGE in 1994, there were two LAA with similar situations and that run-off elections were held to choose the chairman.
She said “it is not as if GECOM doesn’t know it has to do this but the little technicality is that the overseers have to inform them.” She believes that the “overseers did not inform GECOM, not because they didn’t want to but they were told not to.”
The two other opposition-nominated commissioners, Robeson Benn and Sase Gunraj were also present at the press conference. Benn pointed out that “GECOM’s imperative with respect to the holding of elections is to ensure that people are elected properly according to the law and that in so doing people are safe and that the situation is stable.”
The fact, he said is that no action taken by a chairman, vice chairman or mayor in the absence of any elections, could be lawful.
According to him, “GECOM should not sit idly by and allow things to drift the way they are drifting. In my view, it is GECOM’s responsibility to urge the REOs or whoever else to take the requisite action to make sure that the elections are held as soon as possible…”
Contacted, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Tamara Rodney told Stabroek News: “Chapter 28:03 of the Local Government Act stipulates that at the level of the councilors’ elections, if there’s a tie, the overseers or the town clerk are supposed to write to GECOM, informing us about it so that by-elections can be conducted.”
She said too that because of that law, anything that GECOM conducts, has to be in accordance with the law and that they cannot act outside of the law.
According to her, even though they have not received the letter they are prepared to conduct the by-elections, which have to be completed by December of this year.
Meantime, Shadick said too that GECOM is conducting a cycle of continuous registration, which is necessary to update the national register. Persons from as old as 14-years would also be registered but only eligible voters are extracted at the prescribed time. New house-to-house registration, at the level of the commission could begin in 2017, making use of available technology.
