–Nomination Day, Region ONE

By Shirley Thomas
RESIDENTS of the municipality of Mabaruma in the North-West region, along with Port Kaituma/Matthew’s Ridge/Arakaka Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC), on Tuesday joined other local government constituencies across the country in presenting their List of Candidates to the Guyana Elections Commission.An original of the list, along with a copy, was presented. At Mabaruma, the presentation was done at the Mabaruma Community Centre beginning at 10:00h, with two political parties presenting.
The APNU+AFC coalition was the first to present its list of candidates, promptly at 10:00h; followed by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), closer to 14:00 hrs. There were no presentations by voluntary groups or individuals.

At Port Kaituma NDC, the activity was carried out at the Port Kaituma Sub-Office, but there was no communication link with the sub-region, so this publication was unable to ascertain what transpired at that end.

A heightened sense of awareness permeated the region, even though only political parties showed an interest in contesting the upcoming Local Government Elections by submitting Lists of Candidates to the Guyana Elections Commission. For the last several months, the residents have had a heightened sensitisation about LGE and who they think should represent them.

But while there was no degree of fanfare on Tuesday as it relates to the presentation of the Lists of Candidates in the Mabaruma municipality, supporters of the respective parties accompanied their representatives to the venue, where the lists were presented to the Returning Officer.

While that was being done, the supporters waited outside, and on completion, escorted their representatives away with a visible sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

After the lists are received by the Returning Officers, they have to be examined, after which the representatives or deputy representatives with be alerted to whatever anomalies there may be, and alert them by today (Wednesday). The altered/corrected list is expected to be returned to the Returning Officers by Friday.
That done, approval of the list is to be done by Sunday, January 31.

All representatives or deputy representatives will be informed by GECOM of the approval or disapproval of their lists on Sunday, January 31.