Local Govt. Elections…PPP to mount court challenge against ‘gerrymandering’ of boundaries

Aug 31, 2018 News

A GECOM map showing constituencies in
Region 2’s Evergreen-Paradise area.

Unhappy with the way the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has redrawn new constituencies ahead of the Local Government Elections (LGE), the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has disclosed plans to mount a legal challenge.
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed at a press conference yesterday that while the party intends to contest the November 12 LGE, the party believes that GECOM had a duty to hold consultations with political parties before redrawing the constituencies.
“We are going in at a disadvantage, but we are contesting. Trust me. That doesn’t mean that we are muzzled. We have to speak and fight for the rights not of the PPP, but of the citizens in those areas. We are fighting for people on the ground to be heard,” Jagdeo stated.
At the 2016 LGE, there were 71 Local authority areas, which comprised six Municipalities and 65 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs). Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan undertook to increase the areas to 80.
GECOM has since completed the process, but the PPP is contending that the constituencies won by the PPP have been merged in some instances as part of efforts to favour A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC).
Jagdeo pointed out that GECOM has approached the matter in a partisan manner, pointing to Region 2’s Evergreen-Paradise where constituencies 8 and 9 have been merged to create a voter population of 652 voters.
Both were won in 2016 by the PPP.
However, he noted that constituencies 5 and 6 in the same area which was on won by APNU, if merged have a total votes. Jagdeo noted that GECOM did not merge these two.
“They merged two and made it larger when they argue that it should be smaller. They merged the two that the PPP won and not the two that APNU won,” Jagdeo stated.
In Region 3, Malgre Tout Meer Zorgen area, constituencies 5 and 6 have been merged and now sees 1,704 voters and is now reduced to one seat.
In Region 5, the Woodlands Farms area was a ‘tie’ in 2016, but GECOM has merged constituencies 1 and 2 which was won by the PPP and now has 990 voters. Jagdeo pointed out that in the same area, GECOM could have merged constituencies 6 and 7, which was won by APNU and created a pool of 861 voters, but they did not.
‘This is the fairness that we are getting from GECOM. It is not just the Minister who is trying to gerrymander the boundaries, but GECOM itself and they should have invited all the parties and explained this and let the parties make proposals.
Our Commissioners tried to raise this issue at the level of the Commission, but they shut it down,” Jagdeo indicated.
He described it as a patently unfair practice of GECOM that violates the Constitution because they should have consulted with all the parties involved.

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