President cannot delegate power to call elections to GECOM - Civil Society Group

President cannot delegate power to call elections to GECOM – Civil Society Group

Mar 12, 2019 News

The Civil Society Forum, (CSF), which is made up of religious and civil organizations is calling President David Granger to name a date for the upcoming Regional and General Elections.

In a statement the group noted that the President cannot delegate the power to call elections to Guyana Elections Commission.

“The Civil Society Forum believes that deferring the exercise of Presidential responsibility to set the date for elections to such time as GECOM determines its own readiness is unacceptable.

“The constitutions mandate GECOM to be ready within ninety days and there is no provision that allows the President to amend that provision as a pretext for not announcing a date for national elections.”

The group noted that rather than identify the specific technical or administrative tasks whose ‘unreadiness’ is inhibiting announcement of a date for elections, the President pointed to the ‘unreadiness’ of GECOM Commissioners.

The CSF which listed Red Thread; Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana; RISE Guyana; the Anglican Church of Guyana; Guyana Human Rights Association;
Movement Against Parking Meter; Inter-Religious Organization; Guyana Presbyterian Church; Roman Catholic Church; Transparency Institute of Guyana Incorporated; among its supporters, called on the President and the Leader of the Opposition “to recognize their respective responsibilities to honour the Constitution and uphold the law and to hold themselves accountable for finding a solution to this growing crisis which endangers our democracy.”

Following the last meeting with the Opposition Leader, President David Granger noted that the engagement focused largely on the role of GECOM, because it is an independent agency, which could determine when elections would be held.

“The President or the Executive or anybody, cannot intervene, cannot intrude, cannot interfere with the work of GECOM, so we have to allow GECOM to do its work. In that regard, the Leader of the Opposition was insistent that a date be set and he is in all fairness, prepared to vary the date based on a vote by the National Assembly.”

However leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, later stated that with the diplomatic community warning that the current delays in finding a solution are hampering investments, and the business community complaining over what they say is a sharp drop in business, there is not good news…there appears to be no imminent end.
“The meeting degenerated into one of the usual statutory meetings of the Commission, where no urgency is ever given to the holding of elections as is constitutionally mandated, but instead, focus was placed on a house-to- house registration exercise.”

The statement said that the Opposition-nominated commissioners attempted to submit a written proposal, which contemplates the holding of elections in the shortest possible time, that is, before the expiration of the current Official List of Electors on April 30, 2019.

“This submission was not allowed. Instead, the Government-nominated Commissioners insisted that house-to-house registration was necessary before the conduct of elections.”

The Opposition said that it is appropriate to note that any house-to-house exercise will take in excess of nine months.

“To our surprise, the President then asked each of the Ministers present to share their views.

Almost all of them spoke of the need for house-to-house registration. Instead of the expected consultation with GECOM to determine its readiness, the engagement manifested into an obvious attempt to pressure the Opposition-nominated Commissioners and GECOM into adopting the position being advocated by the Government and the APNU, AFC regarding House-to-House Registration.”

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