REPRESENTATIVES of the Carter Centre met with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Monday to receive an update on the commission’s readiness for elections.
Visiting were two females described as “junior representatives,” by GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward. Upon leaving, the women declined to comment on the meeting’s proceedings but Commissioners Sase Gunraj and Robeson Benn spoke to the media.

“We met two ladies from the Carter Centre. They asked some pointed questions in relation to the question of the date; questions in relation to the laws and questions relating to registration in itself. It appears to be a preliminary fact-finding effort on behalf of the Carter Centre,” Benn said

Others at the meeting were GECOM Chairman, Justice (ret’d) James Patterson; Chief Elections Officer, Keith LowenField and PRO, Yolanda Ward. Since 1992, the Carter Centre has assisted Guyana in deepening democracy through the monitoring of elections. with the 2015 General and Regional Elections being the fourth of such observations in Guyana.

Former United States (US) President, Jimmy Carter, had led the first mission to Guyana with the aim of encouraging sustainable development and developing democratic institutions. This is the first time known to this newspaper that the Carter Centre has approached the commission since the fallout that ensued over the no-confidence motion.

Providing a synopsis on the matter, Gunraj said: “The meeting stemmed from a request from the Carter Centre to discuss issues concerning the developments in relation to the holding of elections as a consequence of the passing of the no-confidence motion. “We updated them as to the situation. The same questions that we’ve been discussing over the last few weeks, those are the same issues that were raised and those were the same updates that were given to the team.”

Over the past few weeks, the commission has been meeting on a weekly basis as deliberations heat up but are expected to come to an end, soon, on a fixed date for new elections.

At the most recent press meeting, Lowenfield stated that the GECOM Secretariat would need 148 days to put all necessary systems in place for the holding of General and Regional Elections. Timelines, such as these, which go beyond the 90-day timeframe provided for in the Constitution, if the courts decided that the confidence vote was valid, have been met with much objection from the opposition.

Last Tuesday, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo led a protest against GECOM where he threatened that there would be no business as usual, should his party’s demand for elections by March 19 this year not be met.

Two days later, supporters of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition organised their own protest against the commission, picketing for the conduct of fresh house-to-house registration as budgeted for this year.

The contrasting actions represent the current and colliding national interests of citizens, who on one side push for elections at any cost within the 90-day timeframe and, on the other side, advocate for a credible voters’ list.

Gunraj told reporters on Monday at that the Carter Centre representatives did not express concern, but focused on gathering the facts at hand. It is expected that they will transfer the information gathered to their superiors.

Meanwhile, Gunraj disagrees that there is need for the centre to take up a mediator role at this time. “I don’t know that there’s a role for mediation. What I know is that we have a constitutional mandate, which is to hold elections within a specific time and it is not, I believe, within the role of GECOM to have any such mediation. We have our role. Our duty is to hold elections when they are constitutionally due,” the opposition-appointed commissioner said.

The full commission is expected to meet today, February 12, 2019 at GECOM’s head office to continue deliberations on the matter of an election date, following the stalemate of their last meeting. At the session, the Operations Sub-Committee was set to provide a report in this regard, but it was unable to conclude its deliberations.