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GECOM kicks into high gear for early General Elections
Friday’s historic passage of a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly against the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government has set in motion plans for early General elections.
Senior officials of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) were late yesterday locked in planning meetings for elections, which are now constitutionally due within the next three months.
Chief Executive Officer of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield, told Kaieteur News that he was meeting with his staff to derive a strategy for the earlier than expected polls.
Chief Executive Officer of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield
Government has provided GECOM with $5.4B in 2019, $3B of which is earmarked to be spent in 2019 for the preparation of General and Regional Elections, which was previously due in 2020.
There are already concerns about the health of GECOM’s Chairman, Justice (ret’d) James Patterson. Several meetings following the holding of Local Government Elections (LGE) on November 12 have not been held. This has sparked criticisms of GECOM.
Friday’s vote on the no confidence motion in the National Assembly came as a shocker to many.
Alliance For Change (AFC) member, Charrandass Persaud, voted with the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) on the no confidence motion, a move that forced the collapse of the Coalition Government and early General Elections.
Persaud’s vote gave the PPP/C a 33-32 majority at the end of a fiery debate and a tense voting process.
This is the first time that a Guyana Government has agreed to debate a no confidence motion and it is also the first time the Government has lost such a vote.
Under the Constitution, the Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.
Further, the Constitution states that notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members.
During the vote count at the end of the debate on the Motion brought by Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, all 32 PPP/C MPs voted in favour of the Motion. Persaud was the third member of the Government side to vote. When Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, first called Persaud’s name he replied, ‘yes’.
His ‘yes’ was followed by shouts of ‘no’ from the Government benches. Then there was a momentary pause.
The Clerk then called Persaud’s name again and he replied ‘yes’ for a second time. The Clerk then stopped the vote count. The PPP MPs objected to this delay.
During that time, Government MPs, including People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Chairwoman, Volda Lawrence, and AFC Leader, Raphael Trotman, were seen reaching out to Persaud. Lawrence then asked for a five-minute recess, but House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland, denied the request, pointing out that the vote process must continue.
Isaacs then restarted the vote count of the Government MPs. When Persaud’s name was called for a third time, he replied, ‘Yes, yes, yes’.
At the conclusion of the sitting, Persaud told the media that the AFC members are sitting in Parliament as ‘yes men’ to the A Partnership for National Unit (APNU).
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