For the second consecutive week Opposition-nominated members of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) walked out of a meeting as a protest against preparations for House-to-House registration.
Opposition-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj explained to Stabroek News that he and his colleagues left the meeting after being informed that the Chairman James Patterson had approved the advertisement of House-to-House related vacancies. Stabroek News reached out to Patterson but up to press time was unable to make contact.
“The Deputy Chief Election Officer reported that the Chairman gave the instruction for the Ads to be placed and it became clear that there is no intention to hold elections,” Gunraj said.
He stressed that despite the No Confidence vote of December 21, 2018 and President David Granger urging that preparations begin “there is no preparation being made in respect of holding elections.”“In fact every step that can be taken to prepare for election is being ignored. It is as though the need for election is being ignored and they are moving full speed ahead with House-to-House registration,” the commissioner lamented.
A second opposition-nominated Commissioner Robeson Benn questioned the authority under which Patterson issued the directive. He argued that the Chairman acts on the decisions of the commission and the commission did not decide to proceed with House-to-House registration.
The government-nominated commissioners however disagree. Commissioner Vincent Alexander once again reiterated that in voting to proceed with its 2019 work programme the commission has voted to proceed with House-to-House registration.
“It is an element of the work programme. An administrative matter,” Commission Charles Corbin reiterated.
Corbin also maintained that even with a valid voters list at least 126 days are needed to prepare for General and Regional elections. “The question of preparing for elections has some timelines associated with it. Those logistic preparations goes beyond the available time. If the list is ready and you agree that you will use the existing list, you still have to spend a hundred and something days, for instance, the preparation of staff itself requires 126 days before elections day,” Corbin told reporters. He further noted that the 126 days preparation period for staff is the shortest presented since 2001.
Additionally according to the commissioner despite claims from the opposition that they would like to see elections by a certain date they are delaying the work of the secretariat.
