The Secretariat of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)has prepared and submitted a proposal on its readiness for elections which makes no indication for more money. This was confirmed moments ago with GECOM Commissioner, Vincent Alexander.
He told Guyana Standard that the proposal indicated that GECOM could be ready for elections as early as February 24. “But it does not state that they need more funds and they have not told us that they need more money,” the Commissioner added.
Now that the President has announced March 2 as the date for General and Regional Elections, Alexander said that claims and objections will begin on October 4. That exercise, he said, is expected to last 35 days. Following this will be a period of cross-matching with the data obtained from the house-to-house registration that was conducted a few months ago.
Guyana Standard understands that the proposal by the GECOM Secretariat suggests that the cross-matching will take about 16 days.
Alexander further confirmed with this news agency that the $3.4B that GECOM received in May, takes into account all costs that would be associated with holding the elections in a short time frame.
Yesterday, President David Granger told members of the media that his decision not to dissolve Parliament just yet is hinged on the fact GECOM may need additional funds for the holding of elections. He too acknowledged that the Commission would have received a whopping $8B during the period November 2018 to April 2019 for elections preparation.
