–extends objections period ahead of Local Government Elections

THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) decided at its statutory meeting held on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, to suspend the cycle of continuous registration with effect from February 24, 2023 until further notice.

According to a press release from GECOM, the exercise commenced on January 3, 2023 and was scheduled to conclude on May 31, 2023. However, this decision was necessary to facilitate the inclusion of all eligible persons who have registered thus far under continuous registration, in the respective Registers of Voters (RoV) for the upcoming Local Government Elections.

The deliberations at the level of the Commission, and ultimately the decision to suspend the registration exercise, were premised on a proposal and advice submitted by the Chief Election Officer Vishnu Persaud to ensure the inclusion of all eligible persons in the final Register of Voters.

“For the sake of clarity, it must be noted that in order to facilitate the inclusion of those persons in the RoV, the agency would have to compile supplementary lists by constituency and post them for public scrutiny,” GECOM said.

Acknowledging the need to allow persons to properly scrutinise the supplementary lists with those names, the Commission decided to extend the duration of the objections period aspect of the Claims and Objections exercise until March 2, 2023.

“Persons are therefore encouraged to scrutinize the supplementary lists posted in each Constituency/Local Authority Area (LAA) and to object to the inclusion of the name(s) of any person whom they suspect may not be eligible for inclusion in the list,” GECOM said.