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Govt. will not be flexible on timeline for holding elections – Jagdeo
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Kaieteur News-The Government of Guyana will not exercise flexibility in the timeline for the holding of General and Regional Elections, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has said.
Speaking to reporters at his weekly press conference, the VP who is also General Secretary of the ruling People’s Progressive Party /Civic (PPPC) said that it is imperative that the 2025 elections are held when they are constitutionally due.
“We don’t want extra time; we want elections held on schedule, with international observers, and we want all ineligible names removed from the lists. We want political parties to deploy robust polling agents in each polling place. We want full compliance with the new ROPA. We want the statements of poll published before the tabulation. All of that is in place now,” he explained.
Jagdeo also criticized the opposition for what he described as their attempt to delay the upcoming 2025 elections through sustained calls for additional procedural adjustments.
The PPP /C General Secretary said the opposition appears to be unprepared for the elections, implying they may seek to delay the elections to their advantage.
He made this deduction as a result of the Opposition’s calls for the use of biometrics for the upcoming elections. This would include a new house-to-house registration process that would see the elections planned for 2025 being delayed.
The Vice President noted too, that biometric systems are already in place at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
“The fingerprints we all had to give to GECOM are biometrics. The folio contains a picture next to each voter’s name, so when you go to the polling place, they can see your picture and verify your identity. Essentially, they’re asking for biometrics when we already have them. Perhaps they misunderstand what biometrics are,” the VP suggested.
He continued, “They want to do fingerprinting again, which would take six to eight months. By then, GECOM should be ready. In fact, they should have been ready by March 2nd because that’s when the last elections were held. I set August as the deadline because that’s when the President was sworn in, but by that time, GECOM should be able to tell the President he can call elections whenever he wishes. They’re hoping to kill that timeline.”
Notwithstanding his position, Jagdeo acknowledged that GECOM may need enhanced biometrics. At a previous press conference, Jagdeo said that the government is not opposed to enhanced biometrics at polling stations while noting that it must not be used as a tool to disenfranchise voters at the polling place.
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