The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has published the official results of the March 2 General and Regional Elections (GRE) and named the various political representatives who will hold office for the next five years.
Notably while the Elections Act details that 25 of the 65 seats of the Assembly should be held by representatives of the 10 Geographical constituencies a significant number, 11, will be occupied by parliamentarians who are residents of constituency four when seven seats are allocated to that constituency.
According to the results the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) will hold 33 seats in the National Assembly of which 12 are Geographical seats and 21 are National top up seats.
These 12 seats should ideally be held by representatives of all ten districts but the published list shows that District One – Barima/Waini will be represented by Minister Collin Croal who is registered to vote in Prashad Nagar, Georgetown.
Minister Nigel Dharamlall, a resident of Cummings Lodge will be representing the residents of Pomeroon-Supenaam while Minister Priya Manickchand will represent the Essequibo Islands- West Demerara from Bel-Air, Georgetown and Minister Gail Teixeira will speak on behalf of the residents of Cuyuni-Mazaruni while domiciled in Goedverwagting.
The APNU+AFC coalition which will hold 31 seats appears to have done a better job in selecting representatives with 12 of its 13 Geographical seats occupied by residents of the particular constituency. The lone anomaly is District Eight representative Richard Sinclair who is a resident of Stewartville, West Coast Demerara.
The difference between the Districts where certain parliamentarians live and that which they represent highlights an apparent deficient in Guyana’s electoral legislation.
Guyana’s hybrid electoral system provides for 40 of the 65 seats in the Assembly to be earned through the proportional division of the total number of valid votes cast nationwide while the other 25 are to be earned from votes cast in the 10 geographical constituencies.
The intention as expressed in Section 11(A) of the Election Act is for members of the assembly to be elected “from each geographical constituency”.
This is expressed in two separate sub-sections but there is no specific provision for candidates who appear on geographical list to be resident in that geographic constituency.
In fact Section 11 (B) establishes the eligibility criteria as any “persons qualified to be elected to the National Assembly”.
An identical provision appears in Section 18 of the Local Democratic Act when specifying who can be a candidate for a seat in any Regional Democratic Council (RDC). This means that while only a resident of District Four can vote to elect members of that RDC any Guyanese who is eligible via Article 53 of the Constitution to be elected as a member of the National Assembly can contest for a seat on the District Four NDC.
The full list of Geographical Parliamentarians follows
DISTRICT ONE
Ronald Cox (APNU+AFC)
Collin Croal (PPP/C)
DISTRICT TWO
Shurwayne Holder (APNU+AFC)
Nigel Dharamlall (PPP/C)
DISTRICT THREE
Ganesh Mahipaul (APNU+AFC)
Priya Manickchand (PPP/C)
Tandika Smith
DISTRICT FOUR
Nima Flue-Bess (APNU+AFC)
Catherine Hughes (APNU+AFC)
Maureen Philadelphia (APNU+AFC)
Deonarine Ramsaroop (APNU+AFC)
Vindhya Persaud (PPP/C)
Susan Rodrigues (PPP/C)
Hugh Todd (PPP/C)
DISTRICT FIVE
Vinceroy Jordan (APNU+AFC)
Faizal Jafferally (PPP/C)
DISTRICT SIX
Dineshwar Jaiprashad (APNU+AFC)
Vishwa Mahadeo (PPP/C)
Zulficar Mustapha (PPP/C)
DISTRICT SEVEN
Dawn Hastings- Williams (APNU+AFC)
Gail Teixeira (PPP/C)
DISTRICT EIGHT
Richard Sinclair (APNU+AFC)
DISTRICT NINE
Alister Charlie (PPP/C)
DISTRICT TEN
Jermaine Figueira (APNU+AFC)
Devin Sears (APNU+AFC)
