Embattled GECOM prioritises building 5-storey complex

Amid serious criticisms over the manner in which it managed the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has commenced steps to construct a five-storey multipurpose complex at Lot 41 High and Cowan Streets, Kingston, Georgetown.

In an advertisement published in the Wednesday, December 16, 2020 edition of the Stabroek News, GECOM says it intends to prequalify consulting firms to design and provide a cost for the building.
According to the ad, prequalification will be conducted through prequalification procedures specified in the Procurement Act 2003 and is open to all bidders, subject to provisions of Section IV (Eligible Countries) of the said document.
GECOM says that qualification requirements include: firms’ experience, CVs of key personnel and any other information that may be deemed necessary at this stage.
Applicants are asked to submit their expressions of interest no later than 13:00h on Tuesday, December 29, 2020.
However, questions are being raised as to whether construction of a multipurpose complex should be a priority for the electoral body at this stage, considering the fact that some of its top officers are facing charges in relation to electoral fraud.
Among other key stakeholders, President Irfaan Ali had said that public trust in GECOM Secretariat has been eroded significantly following the recent post-elections events and the electoral machinery must, first of all, be fixed before there was any talk about commencing the process to have Local Government Elections (LGE).
While the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has indicated that it will be ready for the LGE at the constitutionally- due date, it had said that it would be a waste of time to go to the polls with the same controversial persons at the helm of the Secretariat.
“Before we get a voters’ list, you have to have a system that the population has trust in, you can’t have a system where there is very little trust in that system. And the trust in the Secretariat at GECOM has been eroded significantly,” the President had said.
He had asserted that as a country, Guyana would need to put the necessary safeguards in place at the Secretariat, since “that is the system that would give you the end product, that is the system that will be in charge of giving you a voters’ list”.
President Ali had further highlighted that while the composition of the GECOM Commission was one issue that would have to be addressed, what occurred post-March 2 went beyond the Commission as the electoral machinery itself was compromised.
The Government had also announced that it would take steps to have an international Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the events during and after the March 2, 2020 polls.