After a nearly five-year delay, Guyanese will today head to the polls for Local Government Elections (LGE).
These elections are due every two years and were last held in November 2018. The next LGE was scheduled for 2020 but could not be held due to the holding of General and Regional Elections, which had a five-month political deadlock that ran until August before the results were finally declared. This was exacerbated by the novel coronavirus pandemic that was raging at the time.
In the following years, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had undergone a massive overhaul of its senior management at the Elections Secretariat – replacing its Chief Elections Officer and Deputy CEO among other officials.
Since then, the Election Commission has been in preparatory mode for the holding of local government polls. In fact, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government had budgeted monies in the 2021 and 2022 national budgets for these elections.
Despite these and other delays including legal actions taken by the A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) Opposition, LGE 2023 was finally set for June 12.
There are 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs) consisting of some 610 constituencies across the country.
However, there will be no voting at 13 of those LAAS, which has a combined total of 98 constituencies along with an additional 193 constituencies from other local areas where there are unopposed Lists, that is, only one party is contesting the elections.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has already indicated its readiness for the 2023 LGE, saying that they are “ahead of the game”.
Confident
At a press conference on Friday, GECOM Chairperson, Retired Justice Claudette Singh said she is confident that the elections will be conducted in accordance with electoral laws.
“I will surely guarantee that these elections will be conducted in a free, fair, transparent and credible manner,” Justice Singh told the media.
Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud informed that from the position of the Secretariat, they are ahead of the listed activities under the work programme approved.
“I can assure you that we have been working with a work plan approved by the Commission for the conduct of the elections. And as we speak, we are ahead of the game so far as the implementation of the listed activities are concerned.”
Coming out of the 2020 General and Regional Elections, concerns were raised since some staffers within the establishment were compromised. However, Persaud acknowledged that there is no reason to fear as the work of the Commission will not be undermined.
“I have established a direct working relationship with all of the managers, senior managers, mid managers, supervisors. We have been working together and I can assure you, we have a very cohesive team that is focused and committed to acting within the parameters of their responsibilities towards efficient, effective and satisfactory delivery of their functions,” the Chief Election Officer declared.
As of Friday, the Secretariat was engaged with the packing of ballot boxes and placing them in containers that are to be distributed to the various districts. Full support has been given from party agents, the Commission has reported.
Meanwhile, it was noted that GECOM has employed a decentralised supervisory structure, which entails the appointment and positioning of Deputy Returning Officers in LAAs. The CEO has reassured that GECOM is 100 per cent fully-staffed for the conduct of Local Government Elections. Replacements were made for some polling staff, in cases where these persons who were contesting as candidates.
With regards to election results, Persaud explained that due to small numbers of Statements of Poll in some LAAs, the results will not be a “tedious thing” to be declared before midnight on Monday.
However, he cautioned, “This would be affected by agents objecting to the count of the Returning Officer. In this regard, I assure you that the agents themselves will be in possession of the Statements of Poll and the Returning Officer will be displaying his or her SoPs for the benefit of persons there to observe the count.”
Larger LAAs, such as Georgetown, will take longer. The law provides for up to five days for the declaration to be made. Moreover, results for those non contesting areas can be released within the same night. GECOM has since accredited 10 local observer groups to oversee the electoral process.
At the last LGE, held in November 2018, the then PPP/C Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 LAAs. This had followed the holding of the 2016 Local Government polls, wherein the PPP/C had also claimed the majority of the LAAs.
Nevertheless, the 2023 local government polls will see much focus being placed on three main municipalities – Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Linden. These towns are traditionally controlled by the People’s National Congress-led APNU Opposition, but the ruling PPP/C has declared its intention to take over the reins of these townships at today’s LGE.
Polls open across the country at 06:00h today until 18:00h. (G8)
