IN accordance with the statutory requirements of Local Government Elections (LGE), 103 individuals, voluntary groups and political parties have indicated an interest in participating in the March 18, 2016 polls, according to Chief Election Officer of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield. These elections were last held in Guyana in 1994 for only the second time in the history of post-independence Guyana.
However, Lowenfield said that GECOM will continue in their thrust to ensure that education about LGEs is done; and since last September the elections body has been inviting members of the general public and stakeholders to attend meetings within their respective communities.
“I can say that the turnouts to those locations have been very low, while we have afforded ourselves the opportunity, the agency has provided opportunity within the communities to have all persons, but their response was pretty poor, we did not receive the kind of turnouts we wanted, but we will continue.
“Now that individuals and groups are saying that we are in, I think that interest has been boosted and we are ready and prepared to engage the entire citizenship as the processes undergone for the hosting of LGE,” Lowenfield added.
NOMINATION DAY
Meanwhile, he said that Nomination Day for the upcoming local government polls is Monday, January 26th and on that day, there will be 71 locations where nominations and subsequently elections will be held; and it will not be a central activity as was done for General and Regional Elections.
All parties contesting are required by statute to submit a symbol for approval by GECOM prior to Nomination Day. Any List of Candidates submitted by any group on Nomination Day without the required pre-approved symbol, will be deemed defective and the defaulting party would be deemed ineligible to contest the LGEs. Guyana has 585 constituencies within the 71 organs.
The Joint Services will be voting on March 8th, 2016, Lowenfield said.
The GECOM CEO said further that preparation for LGE is on stream and the workplan approved by the commission is on track for the delivery of the elections. He said all the major subsets of the plan are in place and the official lists of voters who are on the list of their respective constituencies in their respective local authority areas have been finalised and approved by the commission.
Lowenfield added that the acquisition of sensitive and non-sensitive materials has been initiated for the LGEs. “As far as the acquisition of ballots go, we are engaged with an overseas company, we are at the point of establishing a memorandum of understanding that seeks to ensure those ballots will be produced in a timely manner and returned to Guyana to facilitate firstly the Disciplined Services balloting day, and then afterwards for the general populace and local authority areas,” he explained.
STAFF TRAINING
Underscoring that GECOM is proceeding with the training of staff required at polling stations, Lowenfield said 71 returning officers were hired to operate in the 71 local authorities where the elections will be held. “We are working out the details as far as supervision of these elections, each local authority will have elections for their own councillors and the commission is working out the details of method of supervision as far as receipt of statements and the declaration of results,” he noted.
According to Lowenfield, the plan is very advanced and GECOM is confident that the body is on track for an efficient delivery of elections to the nation.
The Municipal and District Councils and Local Authorities (Amendment) Bill was passed last month in the National Assembly. It amends the Municipal and District Councils Act, Chapter 28:01, to provide clarity on its application with respect to the new local government system.
The legislation also amends the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, Chapter 28:03, to ensure consistency in its application, as obtains in the Municipal and District Councils Act.

By Rabindra Rooplall