The Alliance For Change (AFC) – the minority party in the coalition Opposition – has warned that if there is no hosting of Local Government Elections (LGE) this year, there could be mass demonstration and riots.
AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan
This remark was made by AFC Leader and former Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, during a virtual press conference on Friday. He was asked about the holding of Local Government polls this year.
“If they do not have Local Government Elections, it will be, again, a violation of our constitutional, a violation of our democratic rights and it might be a serious recipe for all manner of things happening. We might have to go back to court or even worse, you might have demonstrations in the streets. It could very well be a recipe for – I don’t want to let it happen at all but a recipe for riots if you’re gonna deny us Local Government Elections,” Ramjattan stated.
LGE is constitutionally mandated to be held every two years and with the last one held in 2018, it is due this year.
Already, the PPP/C Government has reassured that the election will be held this year. But the Irfaan Ali-led Administration is holding out the need for public confidence to be restored to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) following last year’s March 2 General and Regional Elections.
It has also called for the removal of key electoral officials who are responsible for those events.
Nevertheless, some $1.1 billion has been set aside in GECOM’s 2021 budget for the hosting of Local Government polls.
However, while no monies have been budgeted for the conduct of a House-to-House Registration exercise, the AFC Is adamant that a new registration must be held before the LGE – a position that was reiterated during Friday’s virtual press briefing.
Ramjattan noted that the exercise should be completed to ensure there is a clean voters’ list for the elections.
“We feel that a House-to-House Registration exercise that is brand new, that will get the voters’ lists for these NDCs (Neighbourhood Democratic Councils) is so important for free and fair election that, that must be done. And the call that the Government would want to be making is but distractions and deflections again because GECOM would have to conduct the elections based on a fair and proper list, that is what we want… The Elections Commissions will have to deal with their officers in there,” the AFC Leader asserted.
Adding to this, the party’s General Secretary, David Patterson, also posited that the AFC will not participate in the LGE if there is not a new registration exercise.
“As a party, we’re waiting [on GECOM] and we’ll not be going to Local Government Elections without a new House-to-House Registration. We said this before. I think GECOM is quite aware of our position and I do hope that they get on with a new House-to-House Registration,” he stated.
Meanwhile, AFC’s Executive Member, Cathy Hughes, pointed out during the press conference that the voters’ list should have been cleaned since before the March 2020 elections.
“We weren’t supposed to go into 2020 [elections] with that list, with so many questions. And the fact that most people have no confidence – nearly 50 per cent of the population have no confidence in that existing list – that is enough to make sure that you start fixing the list… Anybody that means well for Guyana will put the House-to-House Registration process high on the [agenda] because with a proper new list, with a clean list we then can talk and go into elections. And then ensure that GECOM delivers a free and fair election that we can commit to,” Hughes posited.
However, while the AFC is pushing for a “new voters’ list”, Chief Justice Roxane George had ruled in August 2019 that it is unconstitutional for qualified persons to be removed from the voters’ list, noting that other options can update the list.
Justice George was at the time handing down her decision in a case filed by Christopher Ram, who had challenged the constitutionality of a House-to-House Registration exercise that was being conducted with the aim of creating a new voters’ list ahead of the 2020 polls.
The Chief Justice had concluded that while the House-to-House exercise is not unlawful or unconstitutional, GECOM cannot remove persons’ names from the existing list if they are not in the jurisdiction or not at their residence during the registration exercise.
She further stated that only deceased persons and those otherwise disqualified under Article 159 (2), (3), or (4) are to be removed.
Pointing out that the “right to vote and the right to be registered to vote are sacrosanct”, the High Court Judge had said, “residence requirements from citizens is no longer a qualification for registration”.
The APNU/AFC coalition had made allegations of irregularities following the March 2020 elections, claiming that the names of dead persons and persons out of the jurisdiction who are on the voters’ list were used to cast votes.
However, in her ruling on the coalition’s elections petition challenging the legitimacy of the elections results that saw the PPP/C taking office after five tumultuous months, Chief Justice George on Monday found that nothing in the petition supports the claims of irregularities during the elections.
