‘NO REGISTRATION, NO ELECTION’ – APNU+AFC pickets GECOM …but PPP insists on elections by March

Feb 08, 2019 News

About 300 members and supporters of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition took to the streets, yesterday, in a peaceful picketing exercise along Main and High Streets, Georgetown, to urge the Guyana Elections Commission to do their job.
Many of their placards read “NO REGISTRATION, NO ELECTION’.
The primary motivator for the picketing exercise, as explained by Kenny Valladares, a representative of the AFC youth arm, Youths for Change (YFC), was to show that people want GECOM to execute its mandate without being bullied by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C).
Valladares maintained, yesterday, that the group has no demands for the Elections Commission, because it is not the collective’s place to make demands of a Constitutional body; that the body should be allowed to do its job.

APNU+AFC marching in front of GECOM

Specifically advocated for by the group is time for the Commission to carry out House-to-House registration before General Elections take place, as funds have already been set aside for that purpose, in the 2019 budget.
Valladares said that young people who are eligible but not yet on the list, should be given their chance to execute their constitutional right to vote.
“To the PPP, we say ‘Voters elect politicians. Politicians don’t select voters’”.
He said that the Constitution paves the way for an extension, of the 90-day deadline, to be given by a two-thirds vote of the National Assembly. This would require PPP-aligned MPs to consent to such an extension, giving GECOM time to prepare itself, even if it does not execute House-to-House registration.
The Commission Chairman, Keith Lowenfield, said the earliest possible date for General Elections would be some time in July.
However, Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, addressing this issue in his press conference yesterday, said that the PPP will not extend the life of the government. The reason for such refusal, he said, is that the government took 18 days after the passing of the No Confidence Motion to have a meeting with the Opposition, and that this indicates an unwillingness to abide by the dictates of the Constitution.
Representative of the collective’s Women’s Arm, Cynthia Rutherford, said that the group respects the Chief Justice ruling on the December 21 vote by the National Assembly, but that democracy is underscored by the doctrine of the separation of powers.
It is in this regard that the collective is lending its support to the government, to exhaust the legal options available, right up to the Caribbean Court of Justice. Even with these proceedings, Rutherford said that the group is in preparation mode for elections, and will support whatever arrangement GECOM comes up with.
Participating in the picketing exercise was Georgetown Mayor, Yubraj Narine, and Ministers Simona Broomes, Annette Ferguson, Ronald Bulkan and Khemraj Ramjattan. Ramjattan reiterated his calls for a chance for new voters to be registered, as well as a cleansing of deceased Guyanese from the list.
He further said that persons who have moved from one place of residence to another should also be given a chance to change their address, lest they be made to travel long distances on Election Day, just to cast their vote.
In his press conference yesterday, Jagdeo said that the size of the picketing exercise by coalition members and supporters is not enough to deceive the Guyanese people into allowing the March 19 deadline to be frustrated. He said that the APNU+AFC government is seeking to lead the country in a constitutional crisis.
“There is no stopping the clock,” he added