Dear Editor,
THE Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) must hold Local Government Elections (LGE) this year! The lack of related definitive communications regarding such decisions allows for uncertainty and speculations concerning what might be, and also creates a general perception that administrators of GECOM are treading softly to avoid the proverbial hot coals.

This conflicts with the legal basis and core constitutional mandate of the GECOM regarding conducting free and fair elections. It highlights the need for the chairwoman and commissioners to be assertive in driving the scheduled steps of a plan, towards a targeted delivery premised on the existent legal framework.

One is well aware of the procedural abuse by Opposition Commissioners, who approach meetings of the commission with delay tactics.
An apt example is the recent re-submitted petition regarding GECOM conducting an investigative review of occurrences related to the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections; although the core context matter was already responded to at the level of the High Court as well as by the chairwoman of the commission.

Yet, the frequent deterring approach of irrelevant motions is frequently and conveniently used to digress from the focal issues of the commission. Given that the commission is legally empowered to set its own rules, the time has come for the Chairwoman to deny these abuses.

As it stands, the commission is in an excellent position to move forward after a highly successful period of the continuous registration cycle. Our citizens anticipate that GECOM will advance the necessary follow-up steps to produce an updated list of registered persons for further validation by way of a short claims and objection period.

The final legal cleansing of the list by GECOM with the involvement of relevant political stakeholders is necessary to produce a voters list that will facilitate the holding LGE.
Guyanese are extremely interested in the holding of the overdue LGE due to the important role they play in the regularisation of service to citizens and the development at the municipal, village community, and local authority levels. In various instances, the Neighborhood Democratic Councils and the municipalities are not functioning properly due to attrition where elected members died, migrated, or others have become lethargic and less efficient.

As a consequence, there are too many vacancies contributing to the justification for these elections to be held without further delay as GECOM must also ensure the proper background interrogation of applicants to these key positions.

From the outlook, GECOM is doing well concerning many issues at the Secretariat level under the guidance of the new proactive Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Vishnu Persaud. However, regarding several vacancies in the Secretariat, the filling of these seem to have lost its traction of urgency after the initial advertisement and subsequent indication that consideration was being given to some applicants.

Notably, there have been public responses to GECOM’s notification of sidelined persons and it is hoped that the commission members will not further subdue the necessity of filling these vacancies by advancing other frivolous matters on the agenda.

Editor, Guyanese are well aware that another tactical delaying maneuver being pushed by Opposition Commissioners concerns the completion of electoral reforms.
We must, however, recognise that the important LGE cannot be pushed out of the window suffering the progressive advancement of thousands of citizens and Local Government Areas because the PNC/APNU+AFC representatives feel it is convenient to suppress.

Phased corrections are quite acceptable along the way since, after all, it was the same mechanism that the APNU+AFC used without complaints for the 2016 and 2018 LGEs under their control while holding the government; it must be done in phases.

The nation is looking at the creation of an elections machinery that is stronger, transparent, accountable, and will produce free and fair elections.
Editor, it would be remiss not to observe the similarities of the Opposition’s Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse election petition challenging the results of Guyana 2020 elections, which is before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Only recently the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court dismissed a similar case that was brought against it, challenging the results of the last general elections in Dominica. In Guyana, we have been struggling with the performance of the Judiciary on too many matters rejected at the CCJ level; these have contributed to significantly heightened tensions that must also be looked at.

However, we will have to live with the final decision and put a system in place to stop all rigging of elections.
In Guyana, it is clear that the GECOM staff before, during, and after the elections were involved in highly questionable performances which caused some of them to be before court for fraud. However, the Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President must be thorough in its investigation of what took place at the March 2020 elections that caused the PNC/APNU+AFC to put their knees on our people’s necks for five months. While all investigations, reviews, and inquiries are taking place, GECOM must hold LGE.

Yours truly,
Neil Kumar