The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) says it’s ready for electors to cast their ballots on June 12 in the Local Government Elections (LGE).
These elections come just over three years after the controversial March 2nd 2020 general elections.
“2020 has gone, but we are now in 2023. A lot of preparation was done, the staff was well trained, and I can’t see anything else. I am just confident that everything will go very smoothly.” Chairwoman of GECOM, retired Justice of Appeal Claudette Singh stated during the press conference.
Meanwhile, Chief Election Officer, Vishnu Persaud, said that there is a good working environment and the staff are confident of a satisfactory result.
“We have a very cohesive team that to my mind is focussed and committed to acting within the parameters of their responsibility toward efficient, effective and satisfactory execution of their functions,” CEO Persaud added.
This, the CEO said, comes after a lengthy registration exercise, following by a claims and objection exercise, followed by the preparation for the LGE.
As such, the CEO said that he has no reason to fear or to worry that things will get out of hand.
“As CEO, I have no reason to fear or to be worried that we would have any type of undermining of the operation of the secretariat in so far as the proper conduct of these elections are concerned.”
Speaking on readiness, Deputy Chief Election Officer, Aneal Giddings, whose appointment was questioned by the APNU+AFC, said GECOM is ready.
“I was there in 2020, and I know the nation recognizes me from then, be it under a different hat and I would have witnessed certain things that came with me. We have documented at my level personally, certain things that we have noticed, I would not get into those details. But these have become a compendium of lessons learnt from previous activities I would have been integrally involved in the conduct of the 2018 election as well and since then in planning for this elections, we would have made some operational adjustments as to how we do things,” Giddings stated.
Queries
Following the March 2020 elections, many issues were raised, that have led to a number of court actions based on the alleged involvement of staff in elections fraud, among other things.
Even though some cases still remain before the courts, the CEO has noted that nothing will feature in this year’s elections that would cast any doubts on GECOM’s performance.
According to GECOM, in order for the elections to run smoothly, the body has implemented a de-centralized structure to ensure that the systems in each local authority is well run.
“We have a de-centralized supervisory structure, which entails the appointment and positioning of Deputy Returning Officers in those areas which are considered to be large. We gave also appointed supervisors who will have some oversight responsibility, simply to provide guidance, in so far compliance with the statutory requirement are concerned.”
These supervisors will be a part of the entire process, right up to when the elections results are announced.
The CEO also noted they are working hand in hand with all the party agents to ensure that there is no dissatisfaction.
“We have not received any complaint from any of these agents or any complaints about dissatisfaction that we were not compliant with any of the
relevant laws, or policy decisions of the commission,” CEO Persaud insisted.
On the issue of taking photographs in polling stations, Persaud said that steps are being taken to prohibit the taking of any images while voting.
Weighing in on the use of photographs to show who an individual voted for, the CEO said that extra steps will be taken to ensure that this does not happen.
“The taking of photographs are not allowed in the polling station and for this reason; the use of cameras, and cell phones. And I want to emphasize, the use of cameras is prohibited”
Speaking on the adequacy of materials, CEO Persaud indicated that there was an instance in which the number of printed materials needed was miscalculated and as such there was a shortage. However, he said that this was rectified internally by GECOM.
GECOM assured that they are not short of staff despite the fact that they have had to replace some staff who were listed as candidates and those person who have openly backed some candidates. This was done to ensure that the staff had no bias in the elections.
The GECOM officials said that Returning Officers are now sorting out the issue of staff, observers, and logistics.
Results
“These are local government election that are conducted in smaller areas, as against what we are accustomed to in general elections. A local authority area may comprise 15/20 though not in the case of Georgetown, which has in excess of 300 and because of small numbers of statements of polls that will be coming in, it will not be a tedious thing to put together results for those smaller local authority areas. So, I don’t envisage any difficulties whatsoever in the returning officers for those areas being able to declare those results before midnight,” CEO Persaud said.
He also noted that overall results will be announced with the five days allotted and that timeline could only be affected due to challenges from a party or an individual.
Observers
Some ten local observer groups have been accredited to observe these elections according to Persaud.
“So, yes we did advertise for persons who are desirous of being accredited to apply to be local observers. We receive such applications as a result of which we have accredited ten local observers groups. Those groups have been gazetted.”
GECOM also believes that it has done sufficient education for the public to know what this election means and how to vote.
