–GECOM PRO confirms

THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is set and ready for Nomination Day on Monday, with all the necessary systems in place to receive lists of candidates for the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE).

This was according to GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, during a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle, on Thursday.

According to Ward, some 80 offices have been established for GECOM officers. On Nomination Day, political parties, voluntary groups and individual candidates contesting in the elections, will be required to submit their list of candidates to the office of the returning officer in their respective local authority areas in which they wish to contest.

Those persons could submit those lists between 10:00 hours and 14:00 hours in the various local authority areas they are contesting.

Ward said: “For example, if you’re contesting in the municipality of Georgetown, you cannot go to the municipality of Linden for example to submit your list of candidates, you have to submit your list of candidates in the municipality or neighbourhood democratic council where you are contesting.”

Additionally, she said that all of the systems are set to receive those lists of candidates on Monday.

After Nomination Day, the Public Relations Officer said that there are a series of statutory things that will be done which includes the examination of the lists of candidates to ensure that they all meet the set criteria according to the law.

However, she added that it is not a case where persons will be automatically disqualified if they don’t satisfy the criteria.

Persons will be given a timeframe to correct any defects that their list might have and resubmit it to the office of the returning officer.

She said: “In the end of it all, once all of the lists reach the required and stipulated criteria, those persons will receive notices of their approved list of candidates and so we will move to officially gazette those lists of candidates for publication.”