ELECTION WATCH: LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS GECOM moves closer to LGE 2023 with approval of boundaries

T he Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has taken a decision to adopt a report from the

Chief Elections Officer (CEO) confirming changes to boundaries in some of the Local Authority Areas

(LAAs).

And GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, contends that the move allows

GECOM to progress closer to holding Local Government Elections this year.

Notably, the AP -

NU+AFC Coalition-nominated GECOM Commissioners opposed the move.

Gunraj said, “The question is why are they relying on a historic 2009 process, when half of the Commission was not there, in fact of the seven people on the Commission, five were not there in 2009. And this process was conducted in 2016 and 2018, without reference to any such guidelines… they have failed to provide any documentation to confirm the guidelines. They are relying on pieces and bits of minutes and unconfirmed documents. Now after all this back and forth and the Chairman heard all of it, the Chairman ruled that the report will be adopted and we will proceed.”

According to Gunraj, the position of the APNU+AFC Coalition-nominated GECOM Commissioners is a manifestation of the latest in a series of delaying that has been employed. “At this stage, once these constituencies are approved as the Chairman has done today, the next step is to extract lists in accordance with those constituencies and by extension the entire country and then have those lists exhibited and go through the process. Once we are done with this, we can set up timelines by which we can inform the Minister that we are in a state of readiness to hold elections. And thereafter he can set the date,” Gunraj said.

Changes

had announced at a press conference in November 2022 that changes were made after consultations with communities and residents in the interest of democracy building. While the decision was made to revert boundaries to before they were changed in the year 2016, other communities which were previously not captured will be placed under townships and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils. In some areas, NDCs will also be merged or split.

“There are 14 areas that were affected in 2018 and we have decided that for better representation, that those areas go back to the 2016 constituency boundaries…We are aware that local democracy is essential to the overall development of communities, our people and our country,” the Minister had explained.

In Region One, there will be an extension of the boundaries of Mabaruma township to capture Wauna, putting them under an institutionalised administration. Previously, in 2018 local polls, they were left out of the township as the Minister now assured of zero discrimination.

In Region Two, where the constituency boundaries collapsed or merged, he said this decision of the previous Administration will be reversed. In the Pomeroon River, due to difficulties in service delivery, there will be a merger to form one NDC of Kitty-Providence and Moruca-Felix.

In Region Three, re -

Dharamlall

Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel

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Over 14,000 temporary staff to support LGE 2023

Some 14,500 temporary staff have been hired by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM to assist with Local Government Elections (LGE), contributing to a budgetary increase of $1 billion for that entity this year, compared to $4 billion set aside last year.

This was revealed during the examination of the budget estimates for GECOM on Monday (January 30, 2023) by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira.

“However, the money was returned, because there was no Local Government elections. So it is expected that the $5 Billion this time will be able to cover the local government elections,” Teixeira explained.

Constitutional agencies have been allocated a lump sum of $13.8 billion from budget 2023, an over 17 per cent increase compared to last year.

Leading the way in allocations was GECOM, which was allocated $5 billion in net current funds and $150 million in capital funds, a total of $5.1 billion.