The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is expected to kick-start final preparations for the hosting of Local Government Elections (LGE), after it was announced that the polls would be held on November 12 this year.
Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan
The announcement was made by Communities Minister Ronald Bulkan on Thursday while addressing the 12th Annual National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference, which is ongoing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
“Local Government Elections will again be held later this year, in November of this year, and in fact, though I haven’t made a public announcement before and it was not my intention to do so. An order issued by me is expected to be gazetted today naming November 12 to be the date when Local Government Elections will be held,” the Minister said.
This year’s Local Government polls are said to mark the first time in Guyana’s history that successive elections are held. After being held in 1994, Local Government polls were next held in 2016 – one year after the current Administration took office.
Some $2.9 billion has been allocated for the elections with an additional $500,000 brought over from last year.
“It speaks to the commitment and the sincerity and the determination of this Administration to honour pledges given by it when we were in Opposition to rebuild this broken and damaged system of Local Government that we inherited,” Minister Bulkan posited.
In preparation, for the LGE later this year, GECOM has already commenced countrywide registration to ensure that all eligible citizens will be able to exercise their democratic right to vote. The process commenced on May 21 and will run until July 15, 2018. Meanwhile, the Commission’s Voters’ Education Division is also active, raising awareness on LGE.
GECOM Chairman, Retired Justice James Patterson told this publication last month that while the preparations have commenced, the body was awaiting the announcement of the date to roll out other aspects.
“There are some things that have to be done by so and so time, but everybody awaiting with abated breath for the Minister to announce the date, because that would give us a time range when to start doing certain things. But whatever has to be in place is in place already,” Justice Patterson noted.
Local Government polls are held in Guyana using a Mixed Electoral System of Proportional Representation and First-Past-the-Post. Fifty per cent or half of the number of Councillors of each Local Authority Area will be elected through the Proportional Representation component and the other 50 per cent through the First-Past-the-Post or constituency component.
