The Chief Election Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission will be expected to put together a new work plan and date for Local Government Elections, with the Commission deciding to review the boundaries for local government constituencies.

The review is coming on the heels of the Chairman of the Commission ruling that the Local Government Minister, Nigel Dharamlall had no jurisdiction to create constituencies and reset constituency borders.

The Commission has now tasked the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Vishnu Persaud to demarcate the constituency boundaries where necessary.

Elections Commissioner, Vincent Alexander said the decision was made during a meeting of the Elections Commission on Monday.

“In pursuance of GECOM’s mandate to demarcate constituency boundaries wherever that is necessary it has been decided that GECOM will undertake a field exercise at the level of the offices in the local government areas, including the involvement of the parties’ assistant chief scrutineers, to determine the demarcation of constituency boundaries in those local government areas which have been extended or contracted,” Commissioner Alexander explained.

Late November, the Local Government Minister extended a number of constituency boundaries while reverting others to the 2016 local district boundaries for the 2023 Local Government Elections. However, the Chairman of the Elections Commission, Retired Justice Claudette Singh said the Minister acted outside of his powers.

It is against that background that the Commission is now moving to review the boundaries. Mr Alexander said the move will undoubtedly affect the conduct of Local Government Elections which was set for March 2023.

“As a consequence, GECOM has to review its work plan and timelines for the holding of local government elections taking into consideration the proposed exercise that should commence soonest and be concluded approximately two weeks after,” Mr Alexander explained.

Already, Nominations Day, which was set for December 12 was postponed. The Commission is also examining a request by the Chief Election Officer for there to be a claims and objections exercise. That request followed Court action that was filed by the APNU+AFC.

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