Statutory meetings of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have been adjourned until January as its Chairman James Patterson is too ill to attend.
Sources have told Stabroek News that the 85-year-old Chairman, who was hospitalised one week ago, has not returned to work and is not expected to do so in the near future. Consequently, commissioners were informed, via a letter signed by Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield, that the next meeting will be on January 8th, 2019.
The commission has not yet been able to address several matters stemming from the recently held local government elections, including the findings of an investigation into irregularities related to proxy voting in the Township of Mabaruma.
“There are lots of issues coming out of the last local government elections…a post-mortem on these elections is still to be done,” a source told this newspaper last week, before adding that delays in addressing this are a “cause for concern,” especially since a walkout by the opposition-nominated Commissioners the week before meant that GECOM was two weeks behind on its workload.
