Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan has said that the party’s National Executive Committee will be making the determination as to whether it will participate in the upcoming local government elections (LGE).
This position comes after AFC Chair Cathy Hughes told sections of the media that the party will be boycotting the elections due to concerns over the credibility of the voters’ list.
However, at a press conference yesterday Ramjattan said that Hughes may have been speaking in her personal capacity but assured that no such decision has been made at the party level.
“The National Executive position is the final decision on the issue and I rather suspect that Cathy was speaking personally. Cathy feels strongly that we must not go into the elections as a result of the state of the voters’ list and by the way, a large number of our members at the NEC so feel. But the NEC will reveal its position [on] the upcoming LGE later on after we would have done our consultations with our various partners, our various membership and the wider society,” he said.
Ramjattan said that the NEC will be meeting before the end of the year and a decision will be taken. Additionally, the AFC leader said that a decision has not been made as to whether the party will remain a part of the coalition with APNU for the polls.
“…it is entirely premature to commit without caveat the Coalition’s participation in the upcoming local government elections. However, as a responsible partner in the Opposition’s coalition, we are committed to those discussions with our membership, partners and the wider society,” he said.
He added that the party has taken note of the announcement of a date for the hosting of LGE but maintained that both the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the government have failed to put mechanisms in place to ensure that there are credible elections. He said that the plethora of issues identified by the Opposition following the 2020 polls remains unaddressed and government continues to shut down the recommendation to rectify the issues.
Ramjattan explained that various Electoral Observer Missions have made several recommendations on improving the conduct of elections and changing the election system, including the structure and composition of GECOM. He related that among the recommendations was a house-to-house re-verification exercise to remove the dead and those citizens who had migrated and present a clean list of electors for future elections.
“Unfortunately, these changes have not been made, threatening the integrity of all future elections in Guyana. At present, the AFC believes that without these fundamental changes to the electoral system, democracy is under threat as this PPP/C regime is determined to cling to power by all means necessary. Over the past two years, the government has done little to change the electoral system to avoid a repeat of the 2020 election fraud that brought it to power.
“The AFC remains steadfast in its advocacy for changes to the electoral system that will strengthen our democracy and give our people the absolute right to choose their representatives free from fear, intimidation or coercion,” he noted.
The Opposition is contending that the preliminary list of electors has some 682,000 names and Guyana’s population is just about 750,000 so that means that the list is significantly bloated.
The AFC said that in an effort to ensure that the results of any election is accepted, then government should consider deferring the election and fixing the concerns with the list.
“We have indicated to even the Diplomatic Corps that there ought to be a deferral of the elections until we get the list right and all the other methods right and then hold elections,” Ramjattan said.
He reminded that elections were deferred for two years back in the early 90s to pave way for rectification of the voters’ list. Ramjattan argued that the process can be embarked upon again but government has been blocking that.
Local Government Elections were constitutionally due at the end of last year but GECOM was without a Chief Election Officer (CEO) and could not have prepared to host the elections.
