Although opposition-nominated commissioner Sase Gunraj on Saturday accused the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Secretariat of attempting to delay elections preparations by not providing requested work plans on Friday, the agency’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward has maintained that they were always scheduled to be delivered today.
In a press statement, Gunraj, who co-chairs the Operations Committee, noted that after the statutory meeting held last Tuesday it was decided that the Secretariat will provide to members of the commission several work plans detailing the various options and the timelines regarding the holding of general and regional elections.
He stressed that the work plans were to be presented by Friday so that they could be perused and digested for discussion by members of the Operations Committee at a meeting scheduled for Monday.
Ward, however, said this was not so. “The Deputy Chief Election Officer was present at that meeting and though the commissioners did ask for work plans to be submitted on Friday, she indicated it was not possible based on the amount of work needed to done and set delivery time for Monday,” she told Sunday Stabroek.
Ward drew attention to a Stabroek News report which noted that Commissioner Bibi Shadick had acknowledged that DCEO Roxanne Myers “made no commitment as to whether or not the Secretariat could provide the work plan before the sub-committee meets on Monday but did indicate that the work plan could be ready by Monday.
In that report, Shadick stressed that presenting the work plan on Monday when the sub-committee meets may not give the members enough time to study it for presentation on Tuesday, February 5th.
On Saturday Gunraj claimed that the delay in presenting the report was a delay tactic “being employed to prevent the commencement of preparations for holding of elections in the constitutionally mandated timeline.”
“No excuse, or attempt at an excuse, has been forthcoming for this refusal and or neglect to provide these work plans, which should have been ready or in any event, easily prepared, from the Secretariat,” he stressed.
