The People’s Progressive Party/Civic has submitted two replacement names for the posts of commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) following the resignations of Mahmood Shaw and Athmaram Mangar.
At a press briefing at Freedom House on Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition and executive member of the PPP, Bharrat Jagdeo made the disclosure that the names of former MP and Public Works Minister, Robeson Benn as well as former MP Bibi Shadick were submitted as replacements.
Jagdeo said that the resignations from Shaw and Mangar were due to personal issues while noting that he urged President David Ganger to “graciously and quickly” approve the new submission in light of upcoming local government elections.
In the aftermath of its loss of the May 11th general elections, the PPP/C had signalled that it would be bolstering its representation on GECOM.
Shah has been a long-serving member of GECOM. Mangar was sworn in as a commissioner in October of 2013.
The PPP/C had said on May 19th that it was considering ways of improving its future representation at GECOM.
As the PPP/C made its announcement about the commissioners’ replacements, the elections commission is still to report any substantial findings in relation to the investigation into the fraudulent Statement of Polls discovered during the May General and Regional Elections.
Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield had told a press conference following the elections that 33 SOPs were found with irregularities. He had stated that none of these SOPs were tabulated in the official calculations and that immediately the Chairman of the Commission as well as the six commissioners were notified. The SOPs in question were discovered at GECOM which raised questions as to how they were brought into the building.
