Office of the Guyana Elections Commission
August 18 2015
An election date has not been named but the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has started training Election Day staff.
According to GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward, over 2,200 persons were expected to attend training sessions at 20 locations in Georgetown yesterday.
“I can’t say how many were present but I know 2,200 were expected today and tomorrow for a two-day training,” Ward told Stabroek News.
She noted that the trainers spent the last week having various refresher courses so that they could be ready to participate in what is likely to be a competitive shortlisting process.
“The total number of staff required for the 2,300 polling stations is a lot less than the nearly 22,000 applications received, so the process for selection is likely to be very vigorous,” she explained.
Meanwhile, GECOM’s ongoing house-to-house registration process, which just concluded its fourth week, has been able to register exactly 244,603 persons.
The process continues unhindered following a ruling on Wednesday by acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, who held that the exercise is not unconstitutional. The judge, however, cautioned that existing registrants cannot just be deleted from the GECOM database unless certain criteria provided by law are met—that being by death or by specified means of disqualification.
The acting Chief Justice also declined to set a date for elections, while noting that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) specifically said that it would not be setting a date by which elections were to be held as that was a matter for the politicians and that the court would not intervene in that realm.
It had been expected that following the ruling, GECOM would be in a position to advise President David Granger on when it would be ready to hold elections, which became due following the passage of a no-confidence motion against government on December 21st last year.
President Granger just over a week ago expressed the hope that recently-appointed GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Singh would communicate to him the Commission’s position within a week.
“We agreed that it is the Elections Commission which is central to this process; it is an electoral process; it is not a governmental process or parliamentary process. It is an electoral process, which is entirely in the hands of the Elections Commission,” the president was quoted as stating by the Ministry of the Presidency at the conclusion of a meeting between he and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
While Jagdeo has been urging the president to set a date for the polls in order to comply with the constitutional requirements attendant with the passage of the no-confidence motion, Granger has insisted that it is GECOM that has to advise on its readiness to hold the elections.
According to the ministry statement, which was issued after the meeting, President Granger, who was accompanied by Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon, maintained that the Commission has to advise him of its readiness before a date can be named.
“I made it clear that it is impossible if not impractical for me, even though in the final analysis I have to proclaim a date, I could not do so without the advice of the Elections Commission,” he said, before adding, “We are looking to hear something, maybe in a week’s time.”
The Ministry of the Presidency had indicated that the next meeting of the two leaders was scheduled for after both the Chief Justice’s ruling and the subsequent meeting of GECOM.
According to Granger, this is at the request of Singh, who asked to hear the judgment of the Supreme Court and meet with the members of the Commission.
“We feel that her request… was a reasonable one,” he said, while noting that the two sides are working towards a consensual outcome.
The commission has since indicated that it is awaiting a written ruling before coming to a decision.
“The question on the way forward was not determined in the main because we are still not yet in receipt of the written ruling of the judge and there are those of us who prefer not to rely on reports and third hand information,” government-nominated commissioner Vincent Alexander explained outside GECOM’s High Street office after the Thursday meeting.