…President Granger issues proclamation for elections on March 2, 2020

PRESIDENT David Granger has proclaimed March 2, 2020 as the day on which an election of members of the National Assembly and the election of members of the Regional Democratic Council (RDCs) shall be held.

A statement from the Ministry of the Presidency indicates that the two proclamations are in keeping with the power vested in the President by Article 61 and Article 60 (2) of the Constitution. The Constitution, at Article 61, states: “An election of members of the National Assembly under Article 60 (2) shall be held on such day within three months after every dissolution of Parliament as the President shall appoint by proclamation.”

Meanwhile, Article 73 (2) of the Constitution states: “Elections of members of Regional Democratic Councils shall be held, and the councils shall be dissolved at such times as, subject to paragraph (3), the President may appoint by proclamation.”
The two proclamations follow the President’s announcement on September 25, 2019 that the earliest possible date for the holding of General and Regional Elections was Monday, March 2, 2020.

His announcement followed discussions with Chairman of the Elections Commission (GECOM) (Ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh and with his Cabinet. It also came one week after Justice Singh advised the Head of State, on September 19, 2019, that the Elections Secretariat will have all systems in place to facilitate free, fair and credible elections by the end of February, 2020.

The Head of State also met Justice Singh on September 25, and discussed the statutory timelines for the upcoming General and Regional Elections. After being sworn in as GECOM Chair on July 29, 2019, Justice Singh took up office within 72 hours, in keeping with one of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)’s June 18, 2018 ruling that the previous chair’s appointment was flawed.

From then to recent times, sometimes thrice a week, the seven-member Commission met to deliberate on a timeframe for which credible elections can be held, in light of a validly-passed no-confidence motion. The commissioners, who are split on how soon elections could be held and what means should be used to sanitise the voters’ list, saw their discussions come to an end when Justice Singh communicated to the President, on September 19, 2019 that credible elections could be facilitated by late February 2020.

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This news did not sit well with the Opposition, which had first called for elections to be held by March 21, 2019 [the Constitutional three-month period], prior to the Court of Appeal’s invalidation of the motion.

They later called for elections to be held by September 18, 2019, three months from the CCJ’s ruling. However, in the weeks leading up to the Chair’s announcement, the Opposition and Opposition-nominated commissioners had contradicted the September 18 deadline by pushing for elections to be held by November 2019. This is the case, as all parties involved had long come to the realisation that the Commission was incapable of holding elections by the said date due to administrative and statutory restrictions.

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, has said that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), though disappointed, will work towards the March 2, 2020 date which President David Granger has named. However, while the Constitution provides for an extension of the three-month period to cater for such a scenario, the extension requires the vote of the Opposition.
“The Government of Guyana must, as a consequence, return to the National Assembly to request an extension. The National Assembly reconvenes on 10th October, 2019. The President is required to both dissolve Parliament, as provided for in the Constitution at Article 70 (2), and the ten Regional Democratic Councils, as provided for in the Constitution at Article 73 (2),” President Granger had stated in his September 25 address to the Nation.

Yet, the Opposition is, thus far, sticking to the position that it will not be returning to Parliament to grant the required extension. Nonetheless, the President has told the nation that it can now look to the Elections Commission to conduct credible elections within the timeframe that has been prescribed. “I engaged the Elections Commission from February 2019 repeatedly. I’ve insisted that credible elections be held at the earliest possible time. Credible elections are essential to representative democracy,” President Granger said.