–should be ready for upcoming regional elections
THE Guyana Elections Commission is well on its way towards implementing an electronic system to be used in the upcoming regional elections and for future general and regional elections. GECOM Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally disclosed that steps are being taken in this direction, but the system needs time to be fully implemented; nevertheless, it will be ready for the upcoming regional elections.
“We are having a retreat shortly, and that will surely be on the agenda… We have our continuous registration programme, nothing has changed in terms of us getting the reports from the (General) Registrar’s Office; we get our reports, and we are up to date.”
Dr. Surujbally said GECOM is prepared and ready for any “snap election”, should one be called. However, he clarified that GECOM does not determine when elections are held.
Dr. Surujbally said the commission is currently working on determining its strengths from its weaknesses, to better host the upcoming elections.
“The second thing is the more immediate one, to determine where our strengths and weaknesses were in the last elections; and we move from here. But our programme is very clear: we are being prepared for any snap elections that could be called; but, we as you know, we do our fingerprint cross-matching; we do our field work, that takes some time; but we could go to the elections, if one so desires. However, (the final voters’ list) has a certain shelf life, (because) one could not go immediately with that list. But as soon as we do another cycle of our claims and objections, I could see no problem in having an election this year.”
He further said that GECOM has already budgeted for the local government elections. “We have budgeted for local government elections, so, if they are ready, we will do our claims and objections as a prerequisite to local government elections.”