Surujbally hints at April Local Government Elections
GUYANA Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday hosted a workshop on the new electoral system for political parties contesting the upcoming Local Government Elections.
The objectives of the one-day programme,  conducted in the Rupununi Room of Hotel Tower, on Main Street, Georgetown, were to describe its basic features; review the legislation which serves to inform the process; consider the order pertaining to councillors for each of the 71 local authority areas; explain the demarcation procedure and discuss advance preparations for the voting.
GECOM Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally, in opening and welcome remarks, said it is always a pleasure to meet with representatives of the political parties but noted that “it would have been more a pleasure if all the 30 odd parties that have expressed their desire to contest these elections were here today.”
Among the parties represented at the forum were People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and Justice for All Party (JFAP).
Surujbally said GECOM will, perhaps, individually or collectively, have a session with the absentees because he wants no one to say they were left behind.
“The door is always open,” he assured, acknowledging that GECOM has been getting a great amount of flack for the claim that “we are not selling our message to the nation.”
But he told the participants: “You are a part of that strategy, that very well thought out strategy of selling this message.”
Surujbally admitted that “this is a very complex and complicated business.”
“It is the first time that we are using the system and we have to get it right. From our side, from the side of our foot soldiers, the people who are out there in the field, who would be having meetings with the citizenry, with organisations,” he offered.
Surujbally disclosed that the Commission met, last Tuesday, with the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) and he said they thought it was a great initiative to have them as they have a command audience in their respective flocks.
“We have heard that, since the thing is complicated, then perhaps a couple of weeks would not be enough. Well, I don’t know where people get this couple of weeks from. I don’t know that the Minister has defined a date as to when the Local Government Elections will take place,” he pointed out.
Surujbally said GECOM has its work plan and the parties have copies of it.

On track
He said:“We are well on track, relative to every single activity, as part of that Microsoft project work plan. If everything goes right, I dare say, the Minister, in his wisdom, will decide on a date sometime in early or mid April but that is not my decision to make.”
He noted it means GECOM has about two months of concerted efforts and this is not something to be done flippantly.
Surujbally revealed: “We were having difficulties carrying the message out, claims and objections, for example, and all the activities that were sequel to the house to house registration.”
He said:”Instead of cluttering people’s minds with all the rules and regulations that govern those activities, we thought that, as we were coming to a close with the claims and objections, that it is time we start to phase in our message relative to the Local Government Elections.
“That is exactly what we did. About 10 to 12 days before the closure of claims and objections, we started to put, in the newspapers, the first three releases.”
He went on: “It is our job, with the assistance of the specialists in this area of communications, whom we have approached individually and institutions, for example, private enterprises, in terms of companies that do this sort of work and University of Guyana Department of Communications, to help us in picking out, drawing out the salient points.”
Surujbally said GECOM has a team that is well versed. “You must have that confidence; you must have that trust in the people who are most knowledgeable about this new system that we are embarking upon.”
He gave the assurance that, if there are difficulties, GECOM doors and hotlines are always open.
Observing that the use of some words have very special meanings, Surujbally said GECOM will try to make the distinction.
He maintained: “You, as I said before, are in the hands of the most knowledgeable people, relative to these Local Government Elections.”