Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh has dispatched a letter to Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall advising of a possible window for the hosting of Local Government Elections.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward, this morning, told Stabroek News that the letter was dispatched to Dharamlall yesterday. However, she could not release the contents of the letter but advised that the Minister was indeed written to and will make the announcement of a possible date for the elections whenever he deems fit.
Stabroek News understands that the Chair wrote to Dharamlall following the submission of a work plan by the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud. The letter comes after weeks of back and forth between the CEO and Commissioners with both sides of the Commission accusing each other of delaying tactics.
According to the work plan, the earliest possible date for the hosting of the constitutionally overdue elections is in the first week of March 2023.
Earlier in October, Stabroek News reported that March 06, 2023, was being suggested as polling day. However, the Commission could not agree to Persaud’s work plan since there were ancillary issues to be addressed.
While GECOM is the arbiter of elections in Guyana, the responsibility to name a date for local government polls is within the remit of the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development. Now that the Chair has written to the Minister, it is now up to Dharamlall to name a date for the hosting of the elections.
Once the date is announced, GECOM would announce nomination day and begin preparation for the procurement of indelible ink, ballot papers and other election-related materials.
Local Government Elections were constitutionally due at the end of last year but GECOM was without a Chief Election Officer and could not have prepared to host the elections. As a result, the Chair wrote to the government informing it of the situation but did commit to confirming a timeline after the appointment of a CEO.
At the beginning of June, the Commission’s Secretariat released a list of vacancies for “polling day staff for Local Government Elections.” The Commission is looking for Presiding Officers, Assistant Presiding Officers, Poll Clerks, Ballot Clerks/ Counting Assistants and Information Clerks. That process concluded at the end of June. Stabroek News had reported that the Secretariat decided to go ahead with the advertisement for polling day staff to be prepared for whenever the Commission announces a date.
GECOM embarked on a continuous registration process back in March, particularly targeting new applicants. The continuous registration cycle concluded on May 29, 2022, with over 49,000 persons being registered for the first time. A total of 70,041 transactions were conducted during the period. 28,149 were new registrants between the ages of 14 and 17, while 21,130 were new registrants above the age of 18. Additionally, 4,629 persons applied for transfers, 6,526 persons changed or corrected their information, 7,667 applied for replacement identification cards and 1,940 registrants retook their ID photos.
Late last month, the commission also concluded its claims and objections programme in preparation for the elections.
