GECOM must finalise vacancies and its schedule of activities for holding LGE this year!

Dear Editor,
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) must hold Local Government Elections this year! The lack of definitive related communication regarding such decisions allows for uncertainty and speculations concerning what might be, and also creates a general perception that administrators of GECOM are treading softly to avoid the proverbial hot coals.
This conflicts with the legal basis and core constitutional mandate of GECOM regarding conducting free and fair elections, and highlights the need for the CHAIRWOMAN and COMMISSIONERS to be assertive in driving the scheduled steps of a plan towards a targeted delivery premised on the existent legal framework.
One is well aware of the procedural abuse by Opposition Commissioners, who use delaying tactics at meetings of the Commission. An apt example is the recent resubmitted petition regarding GECOM conducting an investigative review of occurrences related to the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, although the core context matter was already responded to at the level of the High Court, as well as by the Chairwoman of the Commission.
The frequent deterring approach of irrelevant motions is frequently and conveniently used to digress from the focal issues of the Commission. Given that the Commission is legally empowered to set its own rules, the time has come for the Chairwoman to deny these abuses.
As it stands, the Commission is in an excellent position to move forward after a highly successful period of the Continuous Registration cycle. Our citizens anticipate that GECOM would advance the necessary follow-up steps to produce an updated List of registered persons for further validation by way of a short Claims and Objections period. The final legal cleansing of the List by GECOM, with the involvement of relevant political stakeholders, is necessary to produce a Voters List that would facilitate the holding of Local Government Elections (LGEs).
Guyanese are extremely interested in the holding of the overdue LGEs, due to the important role they play in the regularisation of service to citizens and the development at the Municipal, Village Community, and Local Authority Levels. In various instances, the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and the Municipalities are not functioning properly due to attrition, where elected members died, migrated, or others have become lethargic and less efficient.
As a consequence, there are too many vacancies, contributing to the justification for these elections to be held without further delay, as GECOM must also ensure the proper background interrogation of applicants to these key positions.
From the outlook, GECOM is doing well concerning many issues at the Secretariat level under the guidance of the new proactive Chief Executive Officer Mr. Vishnu Persaud. However, there are several vacancies in the Secretariat, the filling of which seems to have lost its traction of urgency after the initial advertisement and subsequent indication that consideration was being given to some applicants.
Notably, there have been public responses to GECOM’s notification of sidelined persons, and it is hoped that the Commission members would not further subdue the necessity of filling these vacancies by advancing other frivolities on the agenda.
Editor, Guyanese are well aware that another tactical delaying manoeuvre being pushed by Opposition Commissioners concerns the completion of electoral reforms. We must, however, recognise that the important LGEs cannot be pushed out of the window, stymieing the progressive advancement of thousands of citizens and Local Government Areas because the PNC/APNU/AFC representatives feel is convenient to suppress.
Phased corrections and urgent ones are quite acceptable along the way, since, after all, it was the same mechanism that the APNU/AFC used without complaints for the 2016 and 2018 LGEs under their control while they were holding the Government. It must be done in phases. The nation is looking at the creation of an elections machinery that is stronger, transparent, accountable, and would produce free and fair elections.
Editor, it would be remiss not to observe the similarities of the Opposition’s Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse election petition challenging the results of Guyana 2020 National Elections’ results, which most likely would be thrown out by the Caribbean Court of Justice. Only recently, the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court dismissed a similar case that was brought against/challenging the results of the last general elections in Dominica.
In Guyana, we have been struggling with the performance of the Judiciary on too many matters rejected at the CCJ level that have contributed to significantly heightened tensions that must also be looked at. However, we will have to live with the final decision, and put a system in place to stop all rigging of elections.
In Guyana, it is clear that the GECOM staff before, during, and after the elections were involved in highly questionable performances, which caused some of them to be before the court for fraud. However, the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President must be thorough in its investigation of what took place at the March 2020 elections that caused the APNU/AFC-PNC to put their knees on our people’s necks for five months. While all investigations, reviews, and inquiries are taking place, GECOM must hold LGEs.

Sincerely,
Neil Kumar