Naming new towns pushes LGE to March 14 next year – GECOM
Saturday , October 24 2015, Citizen’s Report, Source
IT HAS been made clear that Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is now in full operational mode for the conduct of Local Government Elections (LGE). And the Commission has announced that the elections can be held no earlier than Monday, March 14, 2016, owing to the fact that new towns in Guyana have been named.
“This change in gear was caused by the issuance of several related Orders by the Minister of Communities, including Order No. 23 of 2015 on Friday 23-Oct-2015 which identifies nine owns and 62 NDCs (Neighbourhood Democratic Councils) where Local Government Elections (LGE) will be held,” GECOM said in a statement from the desk of the Commission’s Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally.
Surujbally added, “This Order allows the Elections Commission to extract the voters list for the identified areas for Local Government Elections from the current National Register of Registrants (NRR).”
According to GECOM the fully constituted Elections Commission with all members present, sitting at its Statutory Meeting held on Tuesday 22-Sep-2015, had already unanimously decided that the qualifying date to be used for the extraction of voters’ lists will be February 29, 2016.
“Following the extraction of the Preliminary Lists of Voters for the all Local Government Areas, eligible voters are invited to fully utilize the Claims & Objections period to scrutinize, sanitize and update these lists,” he said.
In the meantime, a Claims and Objections period is slated to commence on November 9, 2015 and persons who will be 18 years and over as at February 29, 2016, will be allowed to make claims to have their registration recorded at the address in the constituency in which they live, either as new registrants or by transfer.
“In addition, they will be allowed to make objections to entries in the list on which their names appear which they know do not represent persons who actually live in their respective constituencies. Other transactions such as corrections to the recorded particulars of eligible voters and change of name, supported by the appropriate source documents, will also be permitted during this period,” Surujbally said.
To facilitate this C&O exercise a total of 153 offices will be established across all the Local Government Areas identified for Local Government Elections. Lists will be posted in each electoral division in these areas and in accordance with the relevant constituencies. The offices will be open for business Monday thru Friday from 3:30 pm to 7:00 pm and 10:00 am to 2:00 pm on Saturdays and Sundays during the Claims and Objections period.
“GECOM urges all eligible voters to make full use of this period to ensure a credible electoral roll is produced,” he said, “Eligible voters should look out for frequent GECOM publications in the print, electronic and social media in addition to fliers, posters and banners providing greater detail and updated information as the time approaches.”
The appointment of the specific date within this period as “Election Day” is still to be made by another Ministerial Order.
