APNU/AFC protests GECOM to encourage delaying elections

…“the sole purpose of that protest is to violate our Constitution” – Jagdeo

A small group of A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) coalition supporters on Thursday called for house-to-house registration, which will delay General and Regional Elections, constitutionally due by March 19.

Government Ministers and a few supporters turned up at the Guyana Elections Commission headquarters, High and Cowan Streets, Kingston, Georgetown, in a protest, effectively calling for national elections to be delayed.
The protesters also called for house-to-house registration; a process that is time consuming and will push national elections further away from when it is constitutionally required, that is, March 19.
Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan spoke to media operatives, where he claimed that there are provisions in the Constitution which result in the postponement of these polls.
Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan, who was on the protest line, was asked why Government was advocating for a new list, given that it will delay the constitutionally due elections. His response was that “list is bloated”.
Questions were raised as to whether a new list is needed when the previous list was used less than three months ago when GECOM successfully ran the Local Government Elections to which Bulkan responded, “Local Government Elections and General Elections are two different animals.”
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said “the sole purpose of that protest by APNU and AFC is to violate our Constitution… It seems as though the Ministers of this Government and the leadership of the two political parties, mainly the major political parties in the coalition are still in the fantasy world that they have been living in for the past several years in Government.”
On January 31, Chief Justice Roxane George in handing down her decisions in the challenges to the No-confidence Motion which was passed in the National Assembly, ruled that the December 21, 2018 motion, which tumbled the Government, was successfully passed.
Consequent to the declaration that the 33-majority meant that the motion was carried, the Chief Justice observed that the President and the Ministers cannot therefore remain in Government in accordance with Articles 106 (6) and 106 (7) after three months.
According to the Constitution of Guyana, it is the President and not GECOM that has to announce a date for elections.