AS part of efforts to ensure a free and fair process, international and local observer missions will be officially invited to field delegations to Guyana for the May 11 General and Regional Elections.This was according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, when posed with the query from the Guyana Chronicle yesterday.

He explained that the “regular groups” were notified following President Donald Ramotar’s indication that there will be a move to elections, more than a year earlier than due.
“The official invitations will now have to be made,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally, told this newspaper that the Commission has been in touch with some of the organisations that normally field Observer Missions to Guyana.
He disclosed that these include the Organization of American States (OAS), the Commonwealth, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
Dr. Surujbally noted too that there is a possibility that the Carter Centre may also have a team of observers in Guyana.
“It is a possibility, but I am still to speak to the officials from the Carter Centre,” he said.
GPSU ACCREDITED
Locally, the GECOM Chairman added that the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has approached the Commission for accreditation and has received it.
“There is a chance that the Electoral Assistance Bureau (EAB) will be resuscitated,” he said, adding to the complement of local elections observers.
Dr. Surujbally stressed that before any of these groups are accredited as observers of the May 11 General and Regional Elections, they have to sign on to “certain” protocols.
He was emphatic in stressing that breach of these protocols would result in the offending group being disaccredited.
The move to early elections resulted from the fact that the objectives of prorogation – in face of a no-confidence motion against the Government and the consequent dissolution of Parliament – failed in the opinion of the current Administration.
Given the posture of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), President Ramotar has always maintained that the need for dialogue was uppermost in his mind when he made his decision to prorogue Parliament on November 10.
Paving the way for greater dialogue among political parties, he contended, would have kept the 10th Parliament alive to address critically important issues currently before the House.
The effect of ending the first session of the 10th Parliament by way of prorogation is the suspension of the business of the National Assembly. As a result of that move, AFC-sponsored ‘No-Confidence’ motion was not considered. Also, APNU had, prior to November 10, signalled its intention to support the motion.
Had it not been for the proclamation to prorogue Parliament, if the no-confidence motion had been approved by the political Opposition, Guyana would have been headed to early general elections within three months. However, President Ramotar had made it clear that if these efforts proved futile, there would be a move to early general elections.
Since the prorogation, APNU and the AFC have made it clear that they will not engage the President in talks unless the prorogation is lifted and Parliamentary work resumes. The rejection of talks was also formally communicated by APNU Leader Brigadier (rtd) David Granger in a December 2 letter responding to the President’s November 18 invitation for talks.
As a result, the Head of State early last December indicated that Guyana will head to early General and Regional Elections, just over three years since the November 2011 polls.

(By Vanessa Narine)