President David Granger will today meet the seven-member Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in order to “consult” on the entity’s readiness to hold general and regional elections.
This meeting is crucial as the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo is insisting that an early date for general elections – before April 30th – be set while GECOM has given July as the earliest date that it can be ready. Based on the December 21, 2018 motion of no confidence, elections should be held by March 21. For this date to be extended, the support of the opposition PPP/C would be required in Parliament.
The meeting, which is to be held at the Ministry of the Presidency at 11 am, will, according to Communications Director Mark Archer, facilitate one of the four processes being pursued by the government following the no-confidence vote of December 21st, 2018.
Referring to a statement made by President Granger following his meeting with Opposition Leader Jagdeo on Wednesday, Archer explained that the four processes taking place relate to the National Assembly, the Judiciary, the Executive and GECOM.
Granger previously stressed that his government would remain in office “until we have exhausted, satisfactorily, I hope, every element and aspect of the law” however in his statement following his meeting with Jagdeo he assured that government is working to ensure that credible elections are held in as short a time as possible.
Speaking at the opening of the People’s National Congress Reform’s Region Three (West Demerara) headquarters at Vreed-en-Hoop, Granger stressed that “there is no such thing as interim government.”
“There is no such thing as a caretaker government. I remain President until the next President is sworn in, so I don’t know how they gon wok that one out. I ain’t going no way until the next president is sworn in,” he added.
The first acknowledgement from the President that elections are likely to be held in 2019 came via a February 25th letter to GECOM chairman James Patterson. In this letter, Granger urged GECOM to begin preparations for elections and promised to doing everything possible to ensure that the commission is provided with the financial resources and has sufficient time to conduct credible elections including seeking the approval of the National Assembly to ensure that an agreement can be reached given both the constitutional requirement and GECOM’s capability.
