Despite the “disappointing” news it received today regarding the holding of elections, the Opposition thinks “all is not lost.
As he spoke about the fact that GECOM told President David Granger that it will be ready for elections by February 2020, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said that the “extension” will buy some time for observers to get into position as the nation gets ready to move to the polls.
“The good thing about this timeline is that more international observers will come. So, all is not lost.” Jagdeo told media operatives.
The former President said that the February date will allow observers to better prepare themselves to scrutinise the systems that will be put in place for elections.
“They will get here early to look at the quality of the voters’ list, polling day logistics as well as election day activities. So, you’re not only going to have people coming in on elections day…They can verify a lot of these things [including] the databases, etcetera. That’s a good thing coming out from it [extended period]. [There will be] more time to go through and scrutinise carefully, all of these issues.” He said.
In the meantime, Jagdeo said that the party will work to ensure that elections are held. “So, whilst we are disappointed with the date – we [still] believe that elections should have been held before the end of the year – we are going to work to ensure when they [elections] are held hopefully at the end of February. Will use the two months more to educate Guyanese of the transgressions,”
