The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh has written to the Minister of Local Government, Nigel Dharamlall informing him of a possible period for the conduct of Local Government Elections, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward has confirmed.

According to Ward, the letter was dispatched to the Local Government Minister on Monday, October 17.

She, however, declined to disclose the proposed period for the elections, explaining that, that is within remit of the Local Government Minister to do so.

“She has proposed a period but it is within the remit of the Minister legally to pronounce on that date, so, I will refrain from that,” Ward told News Source on Tuesday.

The letter to the Local Government Minister comes after months of deliberations at the level of the Commission with the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Vishnu Persaud repeatedly asked to revise his work plan.

In late September, the Chief Elections Officer proposed that the Local Government Elections be held on February 13, 2023 but the Commission had asked him to produce a more realistic timeline.

That revised plan was expected to be submitted to the Commission last Tuesday for consideration. The matter was not discussed at last Tuesday’s meeting after it ended early owing to power outages.

With GECOM indicating that it will be in position to effectively hold Local Government Elections in the first quarter of 2023, the Local Government Minister is now required to approach the National Assembly for an extension.

The GECOM PR Officer told News Source that the Commission is currently in preparation mode. She said with the period for Claims and Objection over, GECOM will soon publish the revised list of electors.

“Very shortly, after we tidy up all of the administrative processes and so on, the Revised List of Electors will be published, and then we will move to produce the Official List of Electors,” the PRO explained.

The main opposition – the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) – has long objected to the Commission utilizing a List of Electors produced from the “old” and “bloated” National Register of Registrants Database. 

It was disclosed that the Elections Secretariat is also conducting training for polling day staff. Training commenced on September 24.

“We are at the stage right now of conducting training for polling day staff. Essentially, the positions are usually for the various levels of polling day workers ranging from presiding officers to assistant presiding officers, poll clerks among others,” she explained.

Local Government Elections were last held in November, 2018.

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