GECOM rules Local Govt Minister has no power to demarcate boundaries

Dec 09, 2022 News

…postpones Nomination Day for LGE

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Elections Body, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), will sit next Tuesday to decide on the reversal of constitutional boundaries set by the Government for the purpose of Local Government Elections (LGE). During a special meeting yesterday, GECOM Commissioners agreed that the Local Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall does not have the power to demarcate constituency boundaries.

Local Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall

GECOM has also decided on addressing issues concerning the Voters List and thus postponed Nomination Day for LGE. Providing an update to this publication, Opposition Commissioner, Vincent Alexander said that it was agreed by all Commissioners that the Minister does not have the power to demarcate constituency boundaries, “and that whatever changes have been made, is null and void.

Alexander explained that GECOM, as the elections body is responsible for issuing the List of Voters in keeping with legal constituencies. “So, we can’t go ahead and issue a list on a constituency that he (Minister) has created. So, we have to go through our process, approve them and we will have the kinds of mapping on which to issue our list.”

The current situation took rise when the Opposition Political Party, the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) in a court matter highlighted that the current List of Electors were extracted from the list for General and Regional elections. They said that the list did not take into consideration the current boundary changes and thus affects the residency requirement for Electors.

Alexander said that since the court case brought the issues to light, GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer has already presented proposals on addressing the current setback. The CEO’s proposal submitted that the APNU+AFC is a major stakeholder in the holding of elections and their concerns must be heard. The CEO noted that the Opposition Party is concerned that members of the public were not provided opportunity to claim entry onto the constituency Register of Voters and to make objections to Electors into the constituency’s ROV who do not belong there.

He said that one of the foremost standards of free and fair elections is that every citizen is able to vote. In his case, for the elections to be free and fair, all citizens who reach the eligibility requirement must be able to vote. The CEO has thus proposed to GECOM, a 14 day ‘Correction of Registers” exercise that will facilitate claims to the list for entry into the ROV, hearing of objections, and correction to incorrect listing of particulars among others.

Dharamlall had said last month that after extensive consultations with communities, Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), Government officials and regional stakeholders, the boundaries of constituencies for Local Government Elections (LGE) were reverted to what they were in 2016, with some other minor changes being made. He said a number of constituency boundaries had been altered by the APNU+AFC Coalition Government in 2018, and in some of the constituencies, their boundaries were collapsed or merged, “… just so that supporters of the PPP/C could not have won those constituencies in 2018.” A new date will have to be set for Nomination Day, which was supposed to be held next Monday, December 12. It is unclear how the current issue will affect the LGE date, which is set for March 13, next year.