GUYANA Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally said the Commission will never endorse any “external” youth organisation, but like all the political parties, it wants young people to come out and vote on May 11.Dr Surujbally was referring to claims that the Commission has “endorsed” the Guyana National Youth Council, a body reportedly funded by the International Republican Institute (IRI), under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Leadership and Democracy Project.

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in a statement had said that the Guyana National Youth Council does not represent the majority but rather they represent themselves.
“They are not democratically-elected but rather self-appointed; they have no formal Constitution or basic requirements for a properly constituted group,” the Ministry said.
Critical elements as these are key criteria for formal registration of a youth group with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
“It is because of these deficiencies that they were unable to get formal registration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. It is therefore a concern and is somewhat surprising that organisations such as the USAID through its LEAD (Leadership and Democracy) Project and CUSO which holds good governance at its fulcrum for accountability and transparency and good organisational management would seek to endorse this group without due diligence,” the statement read.
The Ministry said it is happy that GECOM would like to encourage more first time voters to participate in the elections, but hopes that the Commission will soon unveil a programme of how it will engage first time voters and not delegate it to a third party.
YOUTH STAKEHOLDERS
“However, if GECOM will like to engage youth stakeholders in the process, then they must do so in an open and transparent manner and not give preference to a particular organisation,” the Ministry stressed.
But Dr Surujbally said that globally, youth tend to divorce themselves from the electoral process, and every political party here would want to see the opposite happen.
GECOM too, he said, wants to see a change in this trend, pointing out that as future leaders of the country, youth must be involved in both the electoral and political processes.
“We are saying that we must get the youth involved in the electoral process, we do not approach individual youth groups, they approach us, and we are very clear that our involvement is limited to the provision of information for dissemination. GECOM will not at any point endorse any external organisation. When we give information, GECOM is saying that they must use the information as is. GECOM will not be providing any financial support [to the youth group],” he noted.
In Guyana, while registration is compulsory, there is no push to make voting mandatory.

(By Tajeram Mohabir)