Contesting groups call on Govt. to make Local Elections Day a public holiday

At a post-cabinet press conference on Wednesday morning, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman who was filling in for Minister Joe Harmon, said he has not seen any indication from the cabinet that March 18 will be declared a public holiday. He said the the local government elections are not on the same scale as national elections.

Contesting groups call on Govt. to make Local Elections Day a public holiday

In wake of an announcement by Government that it sees no need right now why Local Government Elections Day should be a holiday, a number of the political parties and groups contesting the elections are calling on the David Granger led administration to reconsider that move.

Campaign Manager for Team Benschop, Ronson Gray told News Source that the Team Benschop group is  “a bit disappointed” and they believe the day should be declared a public holiday to encourage more persons to turn out and vote.

“That would have made the extra push to get people out given the relaxed efforts of GECOM and Ministry of Communities”, Gray said. 
Similar views were shared by Candidate for Team Legacy, Michael Leonard.  According to Mr. Leonard, there is a need to make it as easy as possible to encourage persons to vote.

He said the Local Government Elections is historic and “we have to remove any thing that could hinder voter turnout”

Leonard added that “we are concerned that not having a holiday will serve to further deter people from voting. Voter education has been poor, and little has been done to drum up interest”.

The Youths for Local Government group is also worried about the decision by government and the impact it could have on an already expected low voter turn out.

YFLG Candidate, Clayon Halley told News Source that the “fact is we expect a low turnout due to the lack of knowledge of the Local Government system and structure. Not having a holiday is like adding insult to injury, giving persons more reasons to stay away from the polls.

He said his group would like to “comb” the streets on Elections day and encourage residents “to come out and vote”, adding that  “now that majority will be at work, there is not much to be done.”

He said his group wonders whether the government is not making the elections day a holiday as a strategy to stymie the support of independent groups.

“Why preach about democracy and then in turn, you limit the ability of the citizens to partake in the democratic process?”, Halley questioned.

Mr. Halley also reminded the government that there are elections day staffers who have their regular jobs and they would have been expecting a public holiday so that they could carry out their duties as elections day staff.

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has also issued a call on the government to declare March 18, 2016, a public holiday.

“The PPP/C recalls that recent elections days have been invariably declared a national holiday in order to facilitate electors across the political spectrum to vote”, the party said in a statement.

It also noted that “it was the APNU+AFC that was pushing aggressively for Local Government Elections claiming that people were anxious and excited about being empowered to direct their local officers. In addition, it is to be noted that thousands of electors reside out of their Constituencies and therefore a holiday would facilitate easy availability of time and space to exercise the franchise.”

At a post-cabinet press conference on Wednesday morning, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman who was filling in for Minister Joe Harmon, said he has not seen any indication from the cabinet that March 18 will be declared a public holiday.  He said the the local government elections are not on the same scale as national elections.

Many of the political parties have already expressed concern over a possible low voter turn out. Already, reports indicate that there was a low voter turn out for the Disciplined Forces voting.

The US Embassy in Georgetown, is also worried about a low voter turn out and has called for a redoubling of efforts to get Guyanese to understand the process and head out to the polls and vote.

Polling stations will be open from 6:00am to 6:00pm.

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