GECOM’s failure to hold elections in 2018 must have repercussions—GCCI

Dec 01, 2019 News

By Gary Eleazar

The query behind the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) failing to hold an election when called upon—as a result of the successful No Confidence Motion against the government in December 2018—has to be laid at the feet of those in captaincy of the organization such as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Commission.
The stinging rebuke of the Commission was had this past week when key members of the domestic business community, met for the Georgetown Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (GCCI) annual Award Ceremony at the Georgetown, Marriott Hotel.
GCCI President, Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer, in addressing the business leaders, pundits, politicians and members of the diplomatic community, juxtaposed the situation with inherent repercussions had the same obtained in the private sector.
He recalled for the regional and domestic business leaders that an election that should have happened in March this year, will now take place in March 2020, due to the failure of preparation of the GECOM.
According to the GCCI President, “This cannot be overlooked. As leaders in the business world, if any unit we ran failed its mandate, there would have been serious repercussions and investigations launched into why there was a breakdown in the unit not being able to deliver upon its mandated function within the prescribed time.”
According to Deygoo-Boyer, “Given that, the saga on House to House Registration exposed how flawed the current composition of the GECOM Commission is. Guyanese need a better way forward, and not to be held hostage to the battle for power.”
Looking forward to the imminent election, the GCCI President said, “We see elections as a chance to have national conversations about who will have the best leadership and policies.”
He said too, similarly, GCCI wants to see more diversity and technocrats at the operations level of Government, leaning towards more professional management of the government institutions and agencies; as well as less of the retribution for supporters of the losing side – the party that wins our winner takes all elections governs all Guyanese not just its supporters.
Deygoo-Boyer also used the occasion to call for the establishment of a code of ethics to be adopted by parties contesting the upcoming Regional and General Elections.
“We are encouraging a code of ethics for parties contesting the elections in March. We feel that this is necessary given the contentious nature of our elections and the history of appealing to ethno-security fears that has gone on in past elections,” said Deygoo-Boyer.
“The GCCI feels that elections in the future of Guyana should be about principles and visions for developing our country.”
GCCI believes, according to Deygoo-Boyer, that “in order to prepare our country for a new era in its history, we need to have a single all encompassing, nationally bought into development plan, not a plan that will be thrown out at successive elections.”
He said, “This transformative plan must address the structural issues in our economy that will allow us to be a shining example for our region and for the world in the case of how small states deal with windfall natural resource exploitation.”

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