A key meeting between President David Granger and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) ended yesterday with no election date set and the seven-member commission has been asked to continue with poll preparations even as it seeks agreement on when “credible” elections can be held.
“As far as we are concerned on the government side, we did not receive the sort of guidance that we need to enable me as President to make a proclamation to actually announce a date, but we have kept the door opened and we have asked the Guyana Elections Commission to go back to the drawing board to examine how quickly and how easily they could arrive at an consensual position; merge the various approaches; ensure that the preparations for elections, which have already started, continue and that we could have an agreement as quickly as possible,” Granger said in a video statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency following the more than two hours long meeting with the six GECOM commissioners and its Chairman James Patterson.
Granger said that it appeared to the government side that there are some differences amongst the commissioners. “We did not feel that the differences are irreconcilable, but there needs to be a fresh search for agreement between the competing opinions in the Commission,” he said.
