The Leaders of the Alliance For Change, the Assembly of Liberty and Prosperity and the Forward Guyana Movement have all expressed concern over the lack of information from the Elections Commission on Nomination Day procedures, and a decision by the GECOM Secretariat to place the governing, People’s Progressive Party ahead of them to hand in their nomination lists on Monday.
The political parties have been camping out at the Umana Yana all week to position themselves early to hand in their nomination documents. The APNU was first in line and has remain in place.
However, the Elections Commission has written to the AFC and the ALP leaders, informing them that the PPP will be allowed to hand in its list second. The parties have said they were all in line before the PPP. GECOM appears to be relying on a photograph that was posted to the PPP’s Facebook page claiming that the party was second in line.
The other parties have stated that that is not the case, and the Elections Commission ought to have the parties hand in their documents based on their position in the line. If the PPP gets the number two spot, then all of the other parties could find themselves being shifted down the line.
AFC Leader Nigel Hughes said GECOM’s position is unacceptable.
“For GECOM to say to they have no formalised list but the PPP is second, is a great, not only indication of their intention to manipulate this process for people of a specific political party, but it is also a breach of the equal treatment of all of the contestants in this election…and GECOM if they had an established custom and practice should have notified all of the political parties long before any party was established here, that they were no longer abiding by the existing custom and practice”, he said.
Hughes pointed out that during the camping out at the Umana Yana, a security attached to GECOM visited the site where the nomination process will take place, and made a list of the parties present and their time of arrival. He said for the Elections Commission to even ignore its own security official is a travesty.
Leader of Forward Guyana Movement, Amanza Walton-Desir said she has not received any correspondence from the Elections Commission about the process. She said her party was fourth in line and is now concerned that it could be shifted down further, based on the letter from GECOM that was sent to the AFC and the ALP.
She explained that it is important for parties to hand in their lists early, so that they could be afforded enough time to make changes to the list if there is an issue. The parties are only being given 24 hours to make those changes or corrections. Previously, they were provided with a longer period of seven days.
ALP Leader, Simona Broomes shared similar concerns and complained that GECOM has not been forthcoming on a lot of information and many of the new parties, like hers, have been left in the dark. She said the Commission must come clean and clear on the processes for nomination day and other activities leading up to the elections.
Since the announcement of the elections date and the start of the process to host the elections, the GECOM secretariat has not hosted any press conferences.
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