With the passage of December 2, 2019, Guyana moved into the threemonth period, within which Parliament must be dissolved ahead of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, in accordance with the Constitution of Guyana.
However, the APNU+AFC Coalition continues to shy away from a definitive date for this to take place. During a televised interview on Sunday (December 1, 2019), the Coalition leader, David Granger, when pressed on a date for the dissolution of Parliament, said, “I don’t have to decide on a date now. I will be advised by Attorney General on a date.”
Article 61 of the Constitution of Guyana:
“An election of members of the National Assembly under article 60 (2) shall be held on such day within three months after every dissolution of Parliament as the President shall appoint by proclamation.”
Notably, last week, Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, when asked the same questioned, used the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) as the excuse for the non-committal to a date for the dissolution of Parliament – saying the additional funds needed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the holding of General and Regional Elections in March 2020, will have to be provided before the dissolution of Parliament.
“Maybe the National Assembly has not met, but Parliament is functioning. We have said that it is important that GECOM gets all of the resources it needs to ensure that we have credible elections on March 2, 2020,” Harmon had said. However, GECOM has since made clear that it does not need additional financing. The government-nominated GECOM Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, has said, “We do not have a problem with funding, as far as I know…I don’t think any concern about finance has been brought to us recently.”
Additionally, Opposition- nominated GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, when pressed on the issue of funding of GECOM, said, “As far as I am aware, yes, GECOM has eight billion dollars at its disposal.” With the excuse of GECOM needing funding being removed from the Coalition, there has still been no move towards dissolution. In addition to concerns about Parliament not being dissolved, there are also concerns about the spending of taxpayers’ monies by the APNU+ AFC Coalition.
When asked the concerns related to abuse of state resources, Granger said, “We feel that this is an opportune time to exploit the relationship we have with the people…contact with the masses is always important. It is not extraordinary.” In May 2019 alone, the Coalition returned to the National Assembly for over $300M to pay for ministerial outreaches.
https://citizensreportgy.com/?p=13611