Latest update September 11th, 2026 10:26 AM
Secret balloting in RDC elections standard procedure – Nandlall
…says Clerk of Council has power to decide method
(Kaieteur News) – Amid the national debate surrounding the use of secret balloting in the recent elections for chairpersons and vice chairpersons of the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs), Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, has clarified that the process is entirely lawful and standard practice.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC
During the election of RDC chairpersons and vice chairpersons across the regions, the respective clerks of council instructed that the voting be conducted by secret ballot rather than the usual show-of-hands method used in previous elections. This change sparked uproar among several newly sworn-in councillors, who accused the councils of lacking transparency and argued that the decision to use secret ballots should have been discussed among members.
However, in his weekly Issues in the News programme, Nandlall dismissed the criticisms, emphasizing that secret balloting is a universally accepted and legitimate method of voting.
“Questions being raised about the use of secret ballot as the method of electing the chair. Let me say that, first of all, secret balloting is a standard operational procedure for elections of almost every type. The relevant legislation, the Local Democratic Organs Act, Section 20 (2), vests in the clerk who is the regional executive officer the power to conduct the elections of the chair and the power and authority to determine any question arising at the meeting during the election of the chairperson,” he said.
Referring specifically to the Region Four RDC elections, Nandlall addressed the controversy that erupted when Clerk of Council, Donald Gajraj, announced that voting would be done by secret ballot instead of a show of hands. The decision drew objections from APNU and the Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) representatives, who protested the move, accusing the clerk of acting undemocratically. Despite their objections, the clerk stood firm, and the council proceeded with the secret ballot.
Nandlall, who was present during the Region Four elections, reinforced that the clerk has the full legal authority to decide on the method of voting.
“The clerk of the Regional Democratic Council, in my presence, determined that secret ballot would be the method used to elect the chairman. There is nothing unlawful, irregular, unreasonable, or undemocratic about that process,” he said. “If we vote by secret ballot to elect a government and a president of the country, what is wrong with using the same method to elect the chairman of a municipal district council? None of these persons are councillors at the time when that question arises, so they can’t exercise any powers, they are not members of the RDC as yet.”
He further explained that, at the time of voting, the only person with official authority is the clerk, who may delegate certain duties to assistants, all of whom derive their authority from him.
At the conclusion of the Region Four elections, APNU’s candidate, Shanika Haynes, who was nominated for both chair and vice chair positions, was unsuccessful after receiving significantly fewer votes than the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPP/C) candidate. Following her loss, Haynes expressed dissatisfaction with the use of secret ballots, claiming it undermined transparency in the democratic process.
“Usually, the provision is made where the clerk who carrying out the REO, he will request of the council has been elected, how they vote, whether it be a secret ballot or by the show of hand, he did not do that. He proceeded to say that it has to be a secret ballot and, in my view, that is where we have issues within our democracy because when you revert to that, knowing that you’re doing the underhand business here and there, these are the results,” Haynes stated.
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