The Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, Retired Justice Claudette Singh has signaled to the other members of the Commission that she will rule next week on the formal request by Commissioner Charles Corbin for the Elections management body to initiate a process to review the 2020 General and Regional Elections.
The Government nominated members of the Elections Commission have already made known their opposition to the initiation of any such review process, but the GECOM Chair has indicated that she will make a ruling on the matter next Tuesday.
The Opposition nominated Commissioners had first taken the matter to GECOM back in February.
Earlier this month, the GECOM Chair said that it is not within the Commission’s remit to conduct such a review of the elections. She stated then that GECOM can only examine its processes to see whether there are gaps or weaknesses.
The matter was raised again during GECOM’s statutory meeting a few weeks ago and the Opposition nominated Commissioners decided to put forward a formal motion on the table for consideration by the full Commission.
In the motion’s introduction, it was noted that the 2020 elections were subject to much controversy that ranged from issues before the elections in terms of numeric disparities and post-elections in relation to the tabulation of results.
Commissioner Corbin wants the Commission to spearhead its own Independent Review to gain a better understanding of the bases for the allegations and occurrences and to consider if there are existing or potential weaknesses in the processes employed by GECOM for the conduct of elections.
Mr. Corbin pointed out that GECOM has acknowledged that some of the allegations were serious and must be addressed and therefore GECOM should lead in the process to address them.
President Irfaan Ali recently announced the members of an international Commission of Inquiry into the 2020 elections. The terms of reference for that Commission are not known.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login