Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice Claudette Singh is expected to make a key decision regarding the timeline for the holding of elections by tomorrow. She is expected to inform President David Granger of her decision tomorrow as well.
However, the Chair will be making all her considerations on a timeline for elections without any written guidelines from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).
According to GECOM, the party’s representative, Sase Gunraj failed to provide a work plan as promised. The work plan is a written guideline of how the respective Commissioners recommend GECOM moves towards the election. It is supposed to contain details about several stages of preparations and the recommended timelines when these can be completed.
Both the PPP and the Government had previously submitted work plans. Government, in a previous work plan, had suggested elections can be achieved by next year. However, previous suggestions made by PPP made suggestions of elections being held in this year.
Below is the full statement released by GECOM
“Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission met again today for a continuation of its statutory meeting held on Tuesday, 17th September 2019.
After much deliberations, at the meeting on Tuesday, it was agreed that Commissioners Charles Corbin and Sase Gunraj submit separate schedules based on the proposals made during the meeting.
At today’s meeting Commissioner Gunraj did not make the submission as promised. While Commissioners Gunraj, Benn and Shadick insisted on a November 2019 date for the holding of elections, they submitted no complete work plan to assist the Commission to determine how it was possible to arrive at such a date.
A comprehensive work plan with timelines and considerations reflecting the discussions held on Tuesday was submitted by Commissioner Corbin.
Chairperson of the Commission, Justice Claudette Singh undertook to study the submission, consult with the Secretariat, and based on all the information available to her make a decision on the way forward.
Justice Singh will communicate this decision to the President in accordance with the mandate of the Commission tomorrow.”
