Guyana Elections 2020

The Guyana Elections Commission has processed more than 2,000 new registrations over the one week that the Claims and Objections process has been ongoing.

While Attorney General Basil Williams says that a “crisis situation” will result if the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) does not return to the National Assembly, his predecessor and PPP executive Anil Nandlall says government must absorb that blame as his party remains adamant that it will not be returning to the House.

With the National Toshaos Council conference beginning today, the opposition PPP yesterday made a 15-point pitch for the improvement of Indigenous communities and pilloried the government for violating the constitution.

As he awaits the approval of the renunciation of his United States Citizenship, Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon says that he will be on the APNU+AFC list of candidates for the next election and cannot wait to serve.

While assuring that that their votes would not be taken for granted, President David Granger last evening appealed to Lindeners and the nation to give his government a second term in office to continue the “sound” developmental policies his APNU+AFC coalition has initiated since its election in 2015.

October 5, 1992, the date of the return to democracy after a quarter of a century, promised not only a new era of democracy, but of winner-does-not-take-all politics.

Emphasising the need for a change in the governance system to encompass the main political forces, A New and United Guyana (ANUG) yesterday announced that 73-year-old two-term House Speaker Ralph Ramkarran will be its presidential candidate for the March 2020 elections.

Scenes from the 62nd anniversary activities in Linden yesterday. Jamaican cricketer Chris Gayle also travelled to the town and met residents.

Proposed cash transfers to citizens from expected oil revenues is going to be a defining issue at the upcoming general elections, according to WPA Executive David Hinds, who says the ruling APNU+AFC coalition risks losing supporters if it does not embrace the initiative, which has stirred a groundswell of support. 

Following another meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), it has been decided that the data gathered during the recent house-to-house registration process will be displayed for public examination. 

Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday declared that he still has full confidence in the chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice (Rtd) Claudette Singh but argued that she must realize how damaging recent events will be to the institution’s credibility.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Karen Cummings yesterday said that calls by the international community that the David Granger-led APNU+AFC administration abide by the country’s Constitution as it pertains to calling elections were unnecessary.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday decided to proceed with a 42-day long Claims and Objections (C&O) process, which began yesterday, although opposition-nominated commissioners maintained that a 35-day process had previously been agreed upon. 

I have been informed that this is the first time in Guyana’s post-independence electoral history – certainly the first time since the electoral reforms in the early 1990s – that elections have been called without the major parties having agreed upon the list of voters that is to be used on elections day or (even more concerning) agreed upon the process for arriving at such a list!

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has revoked an order which required all prospective voters for the 2020 general and regional elections to verify their registration during the upcoming claims and objections (C&O) process.

Under growing international pressure, President David Granger yesterday issued a proclamation which names March 2, 2020 as the date for the next General and Regional Elections.