The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is yet to receive formal notification from the Clerk of the Eccles/Ramsburg Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) for it to initiate plans for a by-election, following the resignation of sanctioned PPP/C councillor, Nazar Mohamed.
“The clerk of the NDC is to notify GECOM of the vacancy following that resignation, but as far as I am aware, this has not yet been done. Until GECOM gets that, it cannot start the process for a by-election,” GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander told the Sunday Stabroek.
“Now that the seat is vacant, GECOM has to extract a list of the constituency (and) go through all the processes with its list. The people in the area must have to then get the opportunity to vote at that elections… it is everything like an election but restricted to a constituency,” he explained on Friday.
President Irfaan Ali last week announced that Mohamed had resigned from the post.
“Mr. Mohamed who has been a PPP/C councillor, I have seen a resignation from the post at the NDC,” Ali told a press conference hosted at State House, Georgetown, in response to a question from Stabroek News.
Mohamed has declined to speak with this newspaper since the US instituted the sanctions earlier this month.
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – its financial intelligence and enforcement agency, earlier this month sanctioned both Nazar and his son Azruddin Mohamed. Allegations against the Mohameds include defrauding the government here of some US$50 million in taxes from smuggled gold, as well as bribing public officials.
Mohamed had been selected as the Eccles/Ramsburg PPP/C representative last year and had won overwhelmingly. He had told this newspaper that he was running not to get into mainstream politics, but that he wanted to contribute positively to the development of his community. He noted then that he had already been receiving support from residents in the community.
He explained that he decided to go with the PPP/C since his chance of getting on the council was higher, as according to his calculations, they normally win 90 per cent of the seats on the council.
Mohamed noted too that he had been in the community for the past 40 years and has been contributing to its development. He believed that if he made it to the council he could advance his contributions.
“I don’t want to go into the main political realm. Even at this stage, if the chairmanship is offered to me, I would accept it. I just want to play more of an advisory role,” Mohamed had stated as he pointed out that he is already aged and believes his energies can be used to significantly develop the community.
Ties
After local government elections in 1994, there were by-elections to elect the chairperson and vice-chairperson of three Neighbourhood Democratic Councils due to ties but there isn’t any record of a by-election due to the resignation of a NDC constituency councillor.
According to Stabroek News reports, following the August 8, 1994 local government elections, there were ties in three NDCs namely Soesdyke/Huist Coverden, Gibraltar/Fyrish, and Mabaruma/Kumaka/Hosororo. In all three of these areas, equal numbers of seats on the 18-member councils were secured by the PPP/C and community groups which contested the polls. As a result, fresh elections were held for the chairperson and deputy-chairpersons of the three NDCs.
Stabroek News had reported at the time that at the first meeting of the newly elected councils of Soesdyke/Huist Coverden and Gibraltar/Fyrish on September 23, 1994, there was a deadlocked first vote and the clerk advised that a run-off would have to be held. These polls were held on October 17, 1994 and the PPP/C’s candidate for chairman of Gibraltar/Fyrish, Kenneth Joseph, won with 747 votes and his colleague won the post of deputy-chairman with 755 votes. At Soesdyke/Cover-den, the Soesdyke/Cover-den Community Development Group candidate for Chairman, Leon Barker, won the post with 530 votes while his compatriot, Joan Haynes, rattled up 527 votes to take the deputy-chairperson post. The election for Mabaruma/Kumaka/Hosororo was held on October 28, 1994.
In 1994, the run-offs were done in a matter of weeks, following the holding of the first meeting of the council. As it relates to the NDCs, Section 28 (6) of the Local Government Act, Chapter 28:02 says if there is a tied vote “the overseer shall immediately fix a day within the last ten days of the year for the election, by the registered voters, of a chairman from the councillors receiving the greatest number of equal votes, and the election shall be held and conducted and a return or election made in all respects in the same manner as provided for the election” of councillors.
Meanwhile, Alexander noted that when GECOM is notified, they will begin with the announcement that they had received the information and proceed to notify of a respective Nomination Day and Day of the Elections (E-Day).
“They have to start off with a list of electors in the constituency and they have to use that list to advertise the Elections Day and the people on that list are those eligible to come and vote. Only people who live in the constituency can be nominated and they too will have to have the sufficient numbers of supporters. There is a quantum. If you don’t get it you can’t be nominated,” he explained.
The voters have to also be from that constituency, he stated, while pointing out that GECOM will put measures in place for the staff to work on the day as it does for Local Government elections and the process of voting tallying and declaration is the same.
