– despite several key GECOM staffers facing electoral fraud charges

OPPOSITION Leader Joe Harmon has called for Local Government Elections (LGEs) to be held next year even as President Dr. Irfaan Ali said that an election will only be held after the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) returns to being a professional body.

GECOM had taken five months to declare the winner of the March 2, 2020 Regional and General Elections.
The protracted electoral process had “raised eyebrows” not just in Guyana, but internationally.

“… we have to ensure that we have a system that is working, a system that we can trust, a system that is professional, a system that operates in an unbiased manner, so that the people of our country can have confidence,” President Ali said in response to questions from the media on the sidelines of an event at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre on Monday.
Rebuilding trust in the elections machinery will be no easy task, but President Ali said it must be done.
President Ali had committed to reviewing the events related to the protracted electoral process and launching an international Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to probe the weaknesses of the elections body.

The CoI is expected to help in identifying issues, challenges, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the electoral system and the machinery.
When asked about the status of the potential CoI, President Ali said: “We have not named anyone as yet… there are many issues going on simultaneously in relation to the elections commission, so that team has not yet been identified…we have not named that team, but I have been engaging various international stakeholders.
“I would like it [CoI] to happen quickly… the COVID-19 pandemic also [forced] some restrictions on international stakeholders, but I am in constant dialogue with them`,” he said.
Meanwhile, Harmon said there will be resistance to any plan by the PPP/C administration to what he called a delay of local elections during a meeting with his party’s regional councillors on Wednesday.

He reminded the councillors that local government is a vital aspect of democracy and shall be organised so as to involve as many people as possible in the task of managing and developing the communities in which they live.
Local Government Elections were last held in 2018.

The APNU+AFC Coalition had issued a call on GECOM to begin its preparations for local government elections and the preparation of a new and clean voters list.
The coalition also wants to see resources allocated in the next budget to cater for house-to-house registration.
However, Chairperson of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Volda Lawrence and several staff of GECOM have been charged with offences relating to electoral fraud and misconduct in public office during the March 2 Regional and General Elections.
Some of those charged include PNCR activist, Carol Joseph; Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers and Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of GECOM, Keith Lowenfield, along with his clerks, Michelle Miller and Denise Bob-Cummings; Returning Officer for Region Four, Clairmont Mingo; GECOM Elections Officer Shefern February and Information Technology Officer Enrique Livan.

They are all accused of inflating the results of Region Four – Guyana’s largest voting district – to give the APNU+AFC Coalition a majority win at the March 2 polls when in fact, the PPP/C had won by 15,000 more votes.