Upcoming Local Government Elections: CJ to rule on challenge to GECOM’s method of compiling voters’ list

Exactly one month before Local Government Elections (LGE) are scheduled to be held, acting Chief Justice Roxane George, SC, will deliver a ruling on the application of APNU’s Chief Scrutineer, Carol Joseph, challenging the process used to compile the Voters’ List for the upcoming polls. The long overdue LGE have been set for June 12.
Despite arguments to the contrary, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has maintained that it acted lawfully in compiling the Voters’ List/Official List of Electors.

Last December, Joseph, through her attorney Roysdale Forde, SC, had requested an urgent hearing of an application she had filed challenging the process used to compile the Voters’ List for the LGE. The application, which is being heard by acting Chief Justice Roxane George, SC, lists the Chief Elections Officer, the Commissioner of Registration, and the Attorney General as respondents.
When the matter came up for another hearing on Wednesday, GECOM’s lawyer Kurt DaSilva amplified on written submissions he had earlier laid over to the court.
Counsel also answered a series of questions posed to him by the court. Joseph’s lawyer was not available for Wednesday’s hearing, and as such, Attorney-at-Law Selwyn Pieters stood in for him.
Following DaSilva’s address, the Chief Justice, despite alluding to her heavy workload, committed to handing down her ruling on May 11 at 15:30h.
Joseph is asking the court to make a series of declarations: that GECOM acted ultra vires and unlawfully in compiling the List of Voters for Local Government Elections; that the action of the Chief Elections Officer and/or the Commissioner of National Registration in extracting a List of Electors under GECOM’s order is similarly ultra vires and unlawful; that GECOM acted in dereliction of its duty under the relevant electoral laws; and that GECOM has a constitutional duty to ensure that registration of electors is conducted in accordance with the law.
“The process employed by the Commission to prepare a Register of Voters for use at the next Local Government Elections has deprived the electors and/or voters of the opportunity to object to persons on the Register of Voters in the manner provided for in, and contemplated by, Local Authorities (Elections) Act Cap. 28:03”, Joseph has deposed in court filings.

Another ground in her application outlined that the process employed by GECOM to prepare a Register of Voters for use at the next Local Government Elections has not been in accordance with the Local Authorities (Elections) Act.
To this end, Joseph has asked the court to grant orders setting aside GECOM’s order to extract a List of Electors for Local Government Elections “…on the ground and for the reason that the said Order, No. 55 of 2022, is ultra vires and unlawful.”
She also wants the court to set aside the extraction of the List of Electors by the Chief Election Officer and/or the Commissioner of National Registration; as well as for an order to be granted compelling the Elections Commission to comply with the relevant sections of the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, Cap 28:03.
Another order is being sought to direct and/or compel GECOM to compile a register of voters in accordance with the provisions set out in the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, Cap 28:03, before conducting any Local Government Election in Guyana.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has appointed April 17 as Nominations Day in preparation for hosting of the long overdue LGE in June.
On Nominations Day, parties or organisations/groups or individuals running at the polls make their way to a designated location set by GECOM, where their representatives are required to submit their List of Candidates to the Chief Election Officer (CEO), as well as sign on to the required documents, such as a code of conduct, in order to contest the elections.
LGE, which are constitutionally due every two years, was last held in 2018. At the last LGE in November 2018, the then PPP Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This followed the holding of the LGE in 2016, when the PPP had also claimed most of the LAAs.
Local Government Elections were constitutionally due at the end of last year, but GECOM was without a Chief Election Officer and could not have prepared to host the elections. GECOM, a constitutional body, was allocated $5.2B in the 2023 National Budget to carry out its functions. (G1)