THE stalemate at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) continues regarding a date for new elections, as the Operations Sub-Committee set to report on the matter, was unable to conclude its deliberations on Tuesday.

The sub-committee has been granted an extension to discuss matters further and, the full commission is expected to meet again at their next statutory meeting on February 12, 2019. “Unfortunately, that Sub-Committee was unable to arrive at any decision on the submissions made. The Sub-Committee will be meeting again at some point in time, to continue deliberations relative to the submissions that I would have made on behalf of the Secretariat,” GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield told the media on Tuesday.

The Operations Sub-Committee, on Monday, had received submissions from the GECOM Secretariat regarding the various possible timelines for the holding of elections. The committee is co-chaired by Commissioners Sase Gunraj and Charles Corbin and includes Desmond Trotman and Robeson Benn as members.

Following Tuesday’s statutory meeting, GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that in the proposals presented to the sub-committee, it is clear that the holding of elections in March or April is out of the picture. There are, however, options for the hosting of elections beyond April, which could include house-to-house registration or a claims and objection period, the latter of which presents the earlier time period.

HOUSE-TO-HOUSE REGISTRATION
It was stated that the claims period would require between 28 to 21 days while the objection period could take up to seven days. “In my view, GECOM’s obligation is not merely to hold an election in a particular timeframe but it’s to hold a certain quality of elections. And, for me, the quality of elections requires house-to-house registration because the list is bloated and this is something we all recognised; we now have the finances to correct it and we should use the monies to correct it,” Alexander stated.

Although it was already established that Tuesday’s deferral was as a result of the sub-committee needing more time for deliberations, Commissioner Benn suggested that a “cynical and callous” plan to delay the holding of elections is afoot. He lobbied, like on previous occasions, for the re-training of Local Government Election (LGEs) field staff, tweaking the training to take account for the requirements of national elections.

Benn expressed his disappointment that GECOM did not take into consideration a previous presentation of his, where he indicated that this training could be achieved within 29 to 32 days. “I am really not prepared to go to any other discussion on the other options, unless we look at the first option and, that option is the holding of elections on March 19, 2019,” Benn said. “When we examine that and we have thoroughly dispensed of that, then we can move on to the other options.”

However, Alexander said that some two weeks ago there was a consensus among the commissioners that the March 19, date was impossible. After, perhaps, receiving new instructions from their party, Alexander said that the PPP-nominated commissioners have switched up their position on the issue.

Meanwhile, Lowenfield says that if an election date is not called by April 30, 2019 the Commission will have to proceed towards the production of a new list for elections.