The Office of the Leader of the Opposition today called on the Guyana Elections Commission to take action over the electoral ties in six local government areas on March 18 which have seen the Minister of Communities deciding who would head the bodies and the opposition PPP/C moving to court over the mater.
A statement from the office of the Leader of the Opposition follows:
The Office of the Leader of the Opposition notes the bewildering silence and inaction from the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) in the face of the imbroglio which has engulfed six local authority organs that have been unable to lawfully elect a Mayor , Deputy Mayor, Chair Persons and Deputy Chair Persons because of an equality of seats on those local authority organs allocated to the PPP / C and the APNU +AFC.
It is public knowledge that the PPP/C has launched legal proceedings and obtained a series of orders from the High Court quashing decisions of Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, who in violation of the law, purported to select the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Mabaruma and Chair Person and Deputy Chair Person of the several NDCS affected. Orders were also obtained restraining the Mayor, Deputy Mayor,and the Chair Persons and Deputy Chair Persons from functioning in those capacities. Orders were also obtained mandating the Town Clerk of Mabaruma and the several overseers of the NDCS, to appoint a date for new elections in the several local authority areas affected as the law prescribes.
These legal proceedings were filed not only to protect and defend the will of the electorate, but was also done to protect and preserve the Constitutional mandate of Gecom which is the authority that the Constitution has endowed with the exclusive responsibility in respect of and in relation to the conduct of the elections.
Against this background Gecom’s silence and inaction amounts to a gross abdication of its constitutional responsibilities. It is obvious that were Gecom to assume its responsibilities, it will present some reprieve to this impasse. We call upon Gecom to snap out of this paralysis and begin to discharge its mandate now.
