A Meeting of the Guyana Elections Commission ended this afternoon with no decision made on how the Commission will move forward with preparations for early elections.

The Chairman and Commissioners spent three hours in discussions with the Commissioners representing their respective positions on the house-to-house registration issue.

The Chairman and Commissioners spent a good part of the meeting examining the recent ruling by the Chief Justice on house-to-house registration.

The Chief Justice ruled that the registration exercise is not illegal, but it should also not be used to remove the names of previously registered persons who may not be around at the time of the current exercise.

The Opposition nominated Commissioners want the house-to-house exercise to come to an end and for a claims and objections period to be used to cleanse the voters’ list.

After the meeting, Commissioner Bibi Shadick said there was nothing new coming out of the meeting and the Friday meeting will continue to examine the contentious issues.

Government nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander said there must be a sanitized list for the elections by any means. He said the house-to-house registration remains the best option in the absence of any other alternative. He said “claims and objections” cannot be used to sanitise the voters’ list.

He said a provision that would involve the Chief Immigration Officer and the Registrar General might have to be examined to cleanse the list if one were to look at an option outside house-to-house registration.

Mr. Alexander said the Chairman of the Commission, Justice Claudette Singh, guided the meeting in a “judge like manner”, not showing her hand or where she stands on any of the issues.

He said while Friday’s meeting will continue to examine the issues, it is not clear whether the meeting will settle on a way forward.

All of the Commissioners appeared to have agreed to not release much of the details of their three-hour meeting today.

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