Ali, Jagdeo play down 19 fraud charges
PPP/C General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, and Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali
PPP/C General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, and Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali

…say PPP ready to take Guyana forward

PEOPLE’S Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) Presidential Candidate, Irfan Ali, said the party has invested in competence, youth, experience, commitment, diversity and a list that represents the people who will take Guyana forward after the March 2020 elections.
Ali was, at the time, speaking to the media after his party completed their Nominations Day exercise on Friday at the Umana Yana, Kingston, Georgetown.

The party was the fourth to submit their list. Ali, Jagdeo and the PPP Prime Ministerial candidate, Brigadier (rtd) Mark Phillips, submitted the party’s list to Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, who accepted it.
Some 661,378 electors from across the 10 administrative regions will make their way to the 2,351 identified polling stations to elect their political leaders in General and Regional Election on March 2.

When asked of the 19 charges he is facing before the courts, Ali said “today we started a journey to victory and that is the only thing on my mind, the only thing as presidential candidate is Guyana, and moving Guyana forward.” Questioned on if Ali is convicted of the fraud charges, General Secretary of the PPP/C Bharrat Jagdeo brushed the issue aside. Jagdeo said Ali will be a President for all of Guyana and he will implement a plan for rapid development in all sectors.

BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE
He said on the ‘top-up’ list for the party on Nomination Day, there are 116 members, who will help to push Guyana forward. “Young bright people who can lead and we believe in young people.”

The general secretary said the party is confident of a win at the next elections because of how much work was done on the ground. “What is APNU going to tell people, listen to their rallies and public meetings; it says nothing about their track record, nothing about the future plans. If you drive around the city you can see what our future plans are, because we put them out in a manifesto and posts,” Jagdeo said.

When questioned about the APNU/AFC claim that Ali is his puppet candidate, Jagdeo said “Irfan Ali got 24 of 35 votes in the Central Committee of the PPP”.
He said the PPP track record speaks for itself and when elected to office the party plans to revitalise the economy. The party leaders, on Friday, walked with supporters to the Umana Yana where the party submitted their list of candidates for the election of a President, members of the National Assembly and members of the Regional Democratic Councils, to Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield.

The Nomination Day process began when political parties submitted their party symbols to GECOM by December 13, 2019. This was to allow the commission to examine the symbols and give approval to avoid issues such as duplication.

14 NEW PARTIES
GECOM had reported that 19 political parties have submitted symbols thus far and of these, 14 are new parties.

The law prescribed that the submissions of the lists of candidates will have to be done strictly on Nomination Day and within the timeframe set – no time earlier or later. For the National Top-Up List, it should comprise of 300-330 nominators, 42 candidates (persons to be elected to sit in National Assembly) who all need a statutory declaration form in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths or Justice of Peace, and include the name of the presidential candidate.

The Statutory Declaration form is what candidates sign to indicate that they are Guyanese and do not have dual citizenship.
According to GECOM, the onus is on the candidates to be honest when they sign the statutory forms since the laws do not provide for false declarations made by candidates.
Meanwhile, the Geographical Constituency (Administrative Regions) List must include 150-175 nominators from each constituency and no more than 45 candidates.

It must be noted that parties are not mandated to contest both General and Regional Elections. Likewise, they are not mandated to contest in all 10 geographical constituencies but they must contest in at least six of those regions. With regard to the Regional Elections, the Regional Democratic Council List must comprise of 150-175 nominators for each constituency – all residing in the said region, and 12 to 36 candidates also from within the region. They too are required to sign a statutory form.

Candidates and nominators can only appear on one party’s lists – both National Top-up and Geographical Constituency Lists – but only on one of that party’s geographical lists.

GENDER QUOTA
Parties were also required to have one-third female presence on their National Top-Up List and same on the combined Geographical Constituency Lists in accordance with gender balance laws.
These requirements, as well as others, were examined by Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, on Nomination Day and those parties whose lists, even one, do not meet all the requirements, will be deemed defective.

Parties will have 24 hours after Nomination Day to notify the CEO in writing, of death and/or withdrawals of candidates and/or nominators.
In addition, parties can also withdraw their lists but this will have to be done in writing by both the representative and deputy of the lists and before the lists are approved.

On January 12, the CEO will inform the representative and/or deputies of the defective lists of same and they will have until the following day to make and submit the corrections.
On January 15, the CEO will inform of the approval and/or non-approval of the lists by the elections commission.

Parties will also have up until January 16 to make any appeals to the High Court based on the decisions of the commission.

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