Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 31, 2009 News
In recognition of the need to keep stakeholders abreast with ongoing preparations for the holding of the Local Government Elections, the Guyana Elections Commission on Wednesday last met with representatives of 10 political parties.
According to a press release from the entity’s Public Relations Officer, Vishnu Persaud, the meeting served to apprise representatives of the parties of the principles which will help to inform the delimitation process until the establishment of constituents for Local Government Elections.
It was noted that the forum which was arranged on the initiative of GECOM was engaged to enlighten those concerned about the preparation for the elections.
As such, written invitations were dispatched to all parliamentary and non-parliamentary political parties for their respective Chief Scrutineers and one other representative to attend and participate at the meeting which was held at the conference hall of GECOM’s Secretariat.
GECOM representatives at the meeting included, Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally; Commissioner, M. Shaw; Gocool Boodhoo, Chief Elections Officer; Calvin Benn, Deputy Chief Election Officer; Deolall Ramlall, Civic and Voter Education Manager; Beverly Critchlow, Voter Registration Manager and Colin April, Logistics Manager.
The 10 political parties that were represented were the People’s Progressive Party/Civic, the People’s National Congress Reform, the United Force, the Justice For All Party, A Good and Green Guyana, the National Republican Party, Guyana National Congress, God Bless Guyana, People’s Democratic Party and the Guyana United Muslim Party.
The meeting saw some of the factors which are being considered as crucial to the delimitation process being highlighted. And among those that were shared with the political participants at the meeting were factors such as existing boundaries, existing patterns of human settlement, population density, communities of interest, geographic features, financial and administrative capacity of the respective Local Government Authorities, and financial and administrative considerations that must be addressed.
The participants, after contemplating the information presented to them at the meeting, were invited to submit concerns or suggestions which could serve to inform the delimitation process and enhance transparency in the delimitation of constituencies for the Local Government Elections and acceptability of the outcome.
The perceived inability of GECOM to host Local Government Elections this year was confirmed with the Secretariat announcing their annual vacation extending from current until January 31, 2010.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, at his weekly press briefing said that this development will result in the absence of the full complement of management staff at both junior and senior levels.
He related that the Commission’s decision at such a critical juncture begs the question of the commitment of the entity in ensuring the execution of Local Government Elections.
According to the Cabinet Secretary, details of the ‘ill-fated’ procurement of National Identification (ID) card materials makes for ‘vexed reading’ in light of the abandonment of 2009 as the date for the elections.
However, Chairman of GECOM, Dr. Surujbally, had confirmed that there could be no Local Government Elections this year.
According to him the groundwork that has to be completed before such elections could take place would not be completed by the November 30 deadline.
He said that there must first of all be the completion of the National Register of Registrants (NRR), the production and distribution of the new modern Identification Cards, the delimitations exercise, the claims and objections period, as well as an education drive.
The NRR is still to be completed and there are in excess of 300 cases of multiple registrations which have been identified as a result of the fingerprint cross-referencing programme and this is currently being addressed.
There are also another 84 cases still to be resolved given the poor quality of the fingerprint and this is also to be addressed. In excess of 432,000 registrants have been verified, according to Dr. Surujbally.
Local Government Elections were last held on August 8, 1994, under the administration of the People’s Progressive Party-Civic (PPP/C). In that year, the party won 80 percent of the councils.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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