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 that the Commission would be ready to host Local Government Elections between March 13 and April 24, 2023.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward yesterday told Stabroek News that the letter was dispatched to Dharamlall on Monday. 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.
The letter, seen by Stabroek News, said “…be informed that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has developed a Work Plan for the conduct of Local Government Elections in accordance with the relevant existing legislation. In this regard, I have to advise the earliest possible date for the conduct of Local Government Elections is March 13, 2023, and the latest possible date is April 24, 2023.”
“This information is provided to you to assist with the fulfilment of Section 35(1) of the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, Chapter 28:03m which empowers the Minister of Local Government to appoint a day for the holding of Local Government Elections. Please be assured that should you require any clarity insofar as the appointment of a day for the conduct of Local Government Elections is concerned, we would be happy to address the same,” the Chair added in her letter.
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. CEO Persaud has been revising his LGE work plan for a number of weeks now. He reportedly revised the plan nine times before the Chair wrote to the Minister.
Opposition-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander told Stabroek News that the letter was dispatched even as the Commission is yet to finalise the work plan. He added that the decision to write Dharamlall was taken at last week’s statutory meeting. However, he was not a part of the meeting owing to a power outage.
“The letter seems to suggest since there is a plan that is being discussed and it is not quite finalized, but the view is the time in the plan is workable and therefore they seem to have taken a decision to advise the Minister of the time when the elections could be held,” he said.
Alexander said that he is of the view that GECOM should be dealing with issues that became obvious in the March 2020 general and regional elections before embarking on the hosting of another election. He added that to go into another election without addressing the issues that came up in the last election is not a smart move.
Late last month, the commission also concluded its claims and objections programme in preparation for the elections. However, Alexander said that the Commission may have to revisit claims and objections since the correct legal provisions were not utilized.
“Some Commissioners argued that they had not done the claims and objections in keeping with the provisions of the claim and objections exercise when it is being done for local government elections. That is the view expressed by some commissioners that they have not used the right legal provision to deal with claims and objections,” he explained.
Welcomed
Meanwhile, government-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj welcomed the move to inform the minister of the possible dates for LGE. He said that the move comes despite repeated attempts by the Opposition Commissioners to stall the announcement of a date for the elections.
“I am happy that despite the several attempts to delay, we forged ahead and almost finalized the work plan. The work plan has been finalized sufficiently to allow us to write the minister with a window period within which we can have the elections.
“The period is within the statutory time frame to undertake the processes within the election period. While we are anxious to have the process started, there are still efforts to slow down things. We are looking forward to the successful implementation of the work plan,” Gunraj said.
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 them 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.
Justice Singh had told the media that LGE would be held by the end of November but it is now clear that the elections are nowhere in sight. Initially, Persaud had proposed December 12 as polling day but that was rejected since it fell out of the statutory timeline.
He came back with a date of February 13, 2023, but was asked to further revise it to mid-January. Earlier in October, Stabroek News reported that March 06, 2023, was being suggested at polling day. However, the Commission could not agree to Persaud’s work plan since there were ancillary issues to be addressed.
