THE Local Government Elections (LGE), regardless of any challenges, will not be postponed said Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired judge James Patterson.

“It looks as if but I cannot guarantee that we are going to be undisturbed, unless there are troublemakers,” said Patterson in an invited comment.
He believes that his staff understands the seriousness of the task ahead and intends to take it very seriously.

Although a date has not been set, they have been preparing. It is believed that Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan will pronounce on it very soon.
GECOM has not encountered any challenges so far pertaining to the LGE, but there was a recent discovery of a fake Identification Card (ID) which stirred some concerns for the elections body, he said.
“We have since put out a publication to arrest any such further cards and we said if found, it should be reported to the police and further the commission so we could deal with it,” he explained.

Minister Bulkan early this year said LGE is expected to be held in the last quarter of 2018 and authorities are hoping for citizen participation to climb above 50 per cent.
According to the minister, in the 2016 Local Government Elections, the overall participation figure stood at 43 per cent. He said while the 50 per cent figure may seem low, a similar figure occurs in terms of local elections in other jurisdictions.

In the 2018 National Budget, an allocation to facilitate the holding of the elections was made to the tune of $2.9B, which Bulkan described as a “huge investment”.
He said it represents an equivocal commitment and determination by this administration to ensure that there is democratic governance.