Home News Local Government Elections: AFC flip-flopping; “now undecided on contesting with APNU” –...
…back-pedals 1 day after chair says party will boycott
The Alliance For Change is yet to decide whether it will be contesting the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE) jointly with its coalition partner, the A Partnership For National Unity (APNU).
This week, Government announced March 13, 2023, as the date for the hosting of the long-overdue Local Government Elections (LGE) in Guyana. This was communicated to Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice Claudette Singh, in a correspondence issued by Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall.
At a press conference on Friday, Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan told the media that its National Executive Committee will reveal position on the LGE after consultations, slated before 2023.
However, Ramjattan also informed that the party remains undecided whether it will go to the polls as a coalition with APNU.
“We have not yet decided whether we’re running together or not with APNU. We will make that determination and reveal our position later,” Ramjattan said.
Meanwhile, he could not say what will be some of the push or pull factors influencing their decision.
As it concerns the party’s participation, Ramjattan also held the same views as the APNU that it would be premature to comment, since they have to consult with the membership. However, he renewed calls for a clean voters’ list.
“We have indicated to even the diplomatic corps that there ought to be a deferral of the elections until we get the list right and all the other methods right, and then hold the elections.”
However, his utterance came one day after the party’s chair, Cathy Hughes told local news entity, Demerara Waves, that it will be boycotting the LGE in 2023.
Earlier this week, Justice Singh had written to the Local Government and Regional Development Minister, advising him that based on GECOM’s work plan, March 13 was the earliest date that LGE could be held. In fact, the Commission indicated that the elections could be held anytime between March 13 and April 24, 2023.
The work plan in question was arrived at by Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud, who was tasked by GECOM with coming up with a work plan for the holding of LGE. At first, that work plan was supposed to be limited to this year end. However, that has since had to be extended amid successive weeks of what has been described by the Government-nominated GECOM Commissioners as delaying tactics at Commission meetings.
LGE are constitutionally due every two years in Guyana and were last held in 2018. While the polls were due in 2020, the elections fiasco that played out following the March 2 General and Regional Elections that year resulted in LGE being deferred to last year.
But despite some $1.1 billion budgeted in 2021, the GECOM Chair had indicated in September last year that the agency was not in a state of readiness to host any elections since it was in the process of filling several senior posts at the GECOM Secretariat.
Some of those senior posts within GECOM became vacant after former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield; his deputy, Roxanne Myers and former Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo were fired for attempts to sway the results of the 2020 General and Regional Elections. They are currently before the courts facing electoral fraud charges.
It was only in December last that the Commission finally completed the appointment of a new Chief Elections Officer in the person of Vishnu Persaud. Then only last month, GECOM appointed Beverley Critchlow as the Assistant Chief Elections Officer (ACEO). Nevertheless, over the past months, the Elections Commission has been in preparatory mode for the holding of the local polls. (G12)
