THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) met with the Chiefs of Mission of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and European (ABCE) Union on (Thursday February 21, 2019) to discuss the agency’s preparedness for the conduct of General and Regional Elections.

At the request of the diplomatic delegation, the meeting was held in GECOM’s boardroom where the diplomats met with the GECOM Commissioners and Chairman, Justice (ret’d) James Patterson.

Representing the ABCE Union were Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the United States of America, Terry Steers Gonzalez; High Commissioner of Canada to Guyana Lilian Chatterjee; Deputy High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Guyana, Ray Davidson and Minister Counsellor / Deputy Head of Delegation, European Union Philippe Coessens.
Coming out of the meeting, the commissioners said that there were no talks regarding timelines or demands or suggestions from the union as they sought mainly to familiarise themselves with the recent unfolding.

“Questions were asked that caused the commissioners to respond based on the discussions that are now known to be in the public. [Like] what are our views on GECOM’s state of preparedness, what are our views about house-to-house [registration] and things like that,” Commissioner Vincent Alexander told the media.

Opposition Commissioner Sase Gunraj added: “We informed them, as we have been doing all along, of the issues concerning the holding of elections; what we see as possible delays that are being thrown up, including the latest issue of funding.”

On Tuesday, the commission had decided that to facilitate an election there would be need for appropriation from Parliament.

The decision came after Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, was tasked with seeking out the Ministry of Finance on whether the $3B allocated for house-to-house registration in 2019 could be used to fund elections this year.

The Finance Ministry had responded stating that the 2019 appropriation for the elections commission was not subject to alteration by the ministry and the $3B sum cannot be transferred without prior approval of the National Assembly.

However, Opposition Commissioner, Bibi Shadick does not believe that there was need to return to Parliament.

She told media operatives that GECOM’s fund was a lump sum to the agency from the consolidated fund, and there was no need for an amendment or subtraction of the funds, but simply have the funds transferred to the priority which, she highlighted, as new General and Regional Elections.

“I know for a fact that the monies which are given to Constitutional agencies are spent by those agencies to carry out what their duties are and if some of those duties become priorities or emergencies, then the money has to be used for that,” Shadick said.
Meanwhile, Alexander chose to clear up statements made in the media claiming that GECOM is, in one way or the other, acting against the Constitution.

“What is required of us in the first instance is to state our preparedness and that is what we sought to do. So, to accuse GECOM of flying in the face of the Constitution is not to understand GECOM’s role. GECOM doesn’t set an election date, GECOM responds to a set election date and the fact that emissaries were sent was a clear understanding by those who sent them [knowing] that they had to find out about GECOM’s state of preparedness,” Alexander said.