LGE 2023: GECOM ready for “smooth” Nomination Day on Monday

In preparation for the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE), the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) said that all systems have been put in place for the smooth conduct of Nomination Day on Monday, April 17.
On that day, all political parties, voluntary groups, and individual candidates contesting in LGE 2023 are expected to submit their Lists of Candidates to the respective Returning Officer in the Municipalities and/or Neighourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) where they would be contesting. This will have to be done during the period of 10:00h to 14:00h on Monday.

GECOM is reminding all contestants to ensure that they prepare their respective Lists of Candidates using the prescribed statutory forms and adhere to other stipulated guidelines. These include ensuring that their list has a title, the requisite number of eligible candidates and nominators, and that their list bears the name, signature of each person and ID card number.
Those Lists of Candidates that do not conform to these statutory requirements would be classified as defective and the representative of the list would be given an opportunity to correct those defects after Nomination Day.
According to GECOM, the statutory procedures following Nomination Day would ensure that all the legal requirements are met by the contestants in order for their Lists of Candidates to be approved to contest in the elections.
While the Elections Commission has already approved a total of 64 symbols, approval to contest in the elections is only guaranteed upon the submission and approval of the Lists of Candidates.
Nevertheless, GECOM said, “The Commission envisions a smooth Nomination Day process since it is confident in the ability of the staff at the respective offices to adhere to the legal provisions in the execution of their functions, and deliver quality and professional services.”
This is the first election that the electoral body will hold since the highly controversial March 2020 General and Regional Elections which ended up in a five-months deadlock after there were blatant attempts to rig the elections.
However, a national recount exercise conducted found that Returning Officer for Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district, Clairmont Mingo had heavily inflated the votes in favour of the then PNC-led A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government. The exercise also confirmed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) had won the elections with 15,000-plus votes more than the coalition party.
Since then, several senior and technical GECOM officials have been removed and slapped with electoral fraud charges for their role in the attempts to undermine the will of the Guyanese people. These include former Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield; his Deputy, Roxanne Myers; Mingo along with others.
Since then, GECOM has been working on restoring public confidence in the entity.
In February, Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall set Monday, June 12, 2023 as the date for the holding of the much-anticipated and long overdue Local Government polls in Guyana.
Earlier this week, GECOM invited domestic organisations/groups interested in mounting observer missions to monitor the elections to submit their applications in order to be accredited. The deadline for submission of applications is Friday, May 12.
The Elections Commission has been in preparation mode over the past few months as it gears up for the long overdue elections.
LGE, which are constitutionally due every two years, was last held in 2018.
At the November 2018 Local Government polls, the then PPP/C Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This had followed the holding of the LGE in 2016, during which the PPP/C also claimed the majority of the LAAs.
PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo has indicated that his party intends to contest all the LAAs across the country and has already finalised its List of Candidates for all these areas. Jagdeo had said the party is looking to take the reins in those areas that are traditionally PNC-controlled especially the Linden, New Amsterdam and Georgetown municipalities.
While the governing party is gearing up for LGE, there is uncertainties surround the Opposition’s participation in the upcoming elections.
While the AFC has already opted out of the race, the APNU is still undecided on its participation in the upcoming Local Government polls. Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, as recently as last week, indicated that the APNU is preparing for elections but is still undecided whether it will contest the elections.
At his press conference this week, Norton would only say his party has been preparing for “elections generally from day one” with the aim of preparing “Guyana for a new Government.” (G8)