No defects detected on PPP’s list – Executive Secretary

…says Party’s experience shows as rivals rush to fix flawed submissions to GECOM

More than 48 hours after the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) submitted its lists of candidates to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the party has not been informed of any defects.
This is according to PPP Executive Secretary Zulfikar Mustapha, who explained that if there is any error, the parties are usually notified within 12 hours.
In this regard, he expressed confidence that there are no issues with the PPP’s lists, noting that “we are very seasoned in preparing those things”.
So far, at least three political parties have been informed of defective lists.
The parties are the Alliance For Change (AFC), whose Presidential Candidate is Nigel Hughes; We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), whose Presidential Candidate is United States (US)-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed; and Forward Guyana, whose Presidential Candidate is Amanza Walton-Desir.
They have until midnight tomorrow to make the corrections. If the parties are unable to rectify the issues outlined, they could not qualify to contest the upcoming elections on September 1.

The lists include a Geographical Constituency List, a National Top-Up List and a Regional Democratic Council List.
Each party’s National Top-Up List should comprise 300-330 nominators, 42 candidates (persons to be elected to sit in the National Assembly), who all need a signed statutory declaration form in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths or Justice of Peace, and include the name of the Presidential Candidate.
The Statutory Declaration form is what candidates sign to indicate that they are Guyanese and conform to other requirements set out in the law, such as that they are not a citizen of any other country.
The Geographical Constituency (Administrative Regions) List must include 150-175 nominators from each constituency.
For those contesting the regional elections, the Regional Democratic Council List must comprise 150-175 nominators for each constituency – all residing in the said region – and 12 to 36 candidates also from within the region. They, too, are required to sign a statutory form.
Candidates and Nominators can only appear on one party’s list, including on both the National Top-up and Geographical Constituency Lists, but can only appear on one of that party’s geographical lists.
With Guyana’s National Assembly comprised of 65 elected members, 25 of these are elected from the 10 geographical constituencies and the remaining 40 from the national top-up list. Parties also have to ensure that one-third of the candidates nominated are female.
If any of these issues are detected with the lists, the respective parties are informed and given an opportunity to make the necessary amendments.
GECOM has software that it has been using since 2006, which has been fine-tuned over the years, to run the lists from each political party to identify defects such as repetition of names where they ought not to be.
GECOM will give final approval or disapproval of the lists on July 18. Thereafter, provisions are made for any party to take legal action to contest GECOM’s decision.
During this time also, parties can make withdrawals or notifications of the death of candidates to GECOM by July 15; submit withdrawals of lists by July 17; and submit notifications of the Joinder of Lists by July 21.
GECOM will then be publishing the final and approved lists, titles and symbols on July 23 after a rigorous vetting process to ensure that all the submissions are in compliance with the various legal practices and procedures.
The other parties that submitted lists are the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP).
The Horizon and Star Party led by Hubert Maloney also made a submission to GECOM.