– Surujbally
CHAIRMAN of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr. Steve Surujbally has said that financing for this year’s general elections is “reasonably adequate.”
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday, he said, in his view, the optimal situation to protect a country’s sovereignty is to have the national elections financed by the country itself. Surujbally added that the disbursement of the funds has been done in a timely manner.
He explained that the GECOM expenditures are controlled by the Ministry of Finance, in so far as they relate to financial probity.
Additionally, Surujbally said the Commission’s budget is determined by that Ministry, in conjunction with the agency and ratified by the National Assembly which, this year, approved $2 billion.
He pointed out that countries, such as the United States (U.S.), Canada and the European Union (EU), pooled monies in the past to assist with the local elections process but the majority of the funding was handled in-country.
Last week, Head of the EU Delegation to Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, Mr. Geert Heikens said that the (EU) will not be making any finance available for monitoring Guyana’s upcoming general elections.
He speculated that monitoring bodies will, most likely, be delegated by the Organisation of American States (OAS), CARICOM and the (British) Commonwealth but the EU will reserve its capacities for countries where there is a perceived need for such a unit. (Vanessa Narine)