Carter Centre lends a hand to GECOM

Mar 21, 2019 News

A meeting was held yesterday between officials from the Carter Centre and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), where the former proposed a few solutions to sort out issues related to the credibility of the Official List of Electors and the current issue of when elections should be held.

Carter Centre Official, Jason Carter

Commissioner Vincent Alexander said that one of the suggestions put forward by the Carter Centre officials could see elections being held as early as August, but that that would necessitate the cleansing of the list. This cleansing, according to Alexander, involves the activation of a law in the National Registration Act, to remove the names of persons who have migrated.
“There is a mechanism by which the list could be cleansed of persons who are resident overseas, not interfering with their constitutional right, because the same regulations would permit them, if they wanted to be involved in the elections, to be home at the time of claims and objections to get their names back on the list,” he said.
Alexander said that he may consider the proposal.
Commissioner Sase Gunraj indicated that the proposals, though being considered, would now depend on President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to make the final decision. He did not divulge details of the proposal.
Grandson of President Jimmy Carter and Carter Centre official, Jason Carter, told members of the media that the Centre has a vested interest in Guyana’s wellbeing, and that it is here to lend support to the country.
He said that the role of the Carter Centre is “unlimited” but that the solution of the current issues ultimately rest on “the cooperation of the political leadership of this country, and we are optimistic.”
These negotiations come after weeks of advocacy by the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, for the Carter Centre to lend its assistance. During a press conference yesterday, Jagdeo said that the centre has been in talks with the Opposition as well as with officials in government for quite some time.
At this time, the Carter Centre is the only organization that has, across country lines, attempted to provide a solution to the current impasse via negotiations with GECOM.

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