By Staff Writer
The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) is calling on the international community and civil society to turn up the heat on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to ensure the opposition’s concerns are satisfactorily addressed ahead of this year’s General and Regional Elections.
WPA Executive Member Dr. David Hinds, lamenting the current state of affairs, emphasized the crucial role these “two forces” played in the 2020 elections. He urged them to be just as proactive now in pushing GECOM to engage with the opposition and reach a compromise.
Dr. Hinds specifically called on the Caribbean Community and nudged observer groups to “put pressure” on the elections body, highlighting that five years have passed without GECOM satisfactorily addressing many of the issues raised during the recount of the 2020 election results.
“It’s a scandal,” the professor declared, adding that the silence from the international community is “deafening”.
The nation, during the five-month delay of the 2020 election results, witnessed developments from the recount that were comical, revealing and other times fraught with ludicrousness, as both the country’s judiciary and the citizenry’s imagination were stretched to unimaginable lengths. Those whom the now-opposition claimed were dead, professed to be alive and those whom it claimed were in North America during the elections, came out to verify they were in fact in Guyana.
It is upon these claims that the opposition has been calling for the implementation of biometrics at places of poll and the introduction of a ‘clean voters’ list’ among other measures it believes are important for a transparent 2025 election.
GECOM however, has refused to meet these demands, citing that the use of biometrics would involve legislative action, not to mention a complete modification of existing systems that will likely surpass the constitutional time frame for election. On the issue of a ‘clean voters’ list, the GECOM Chairperson, Justice (retired) Claudette Singh has reminded of the Chief Justice’s ruling that names can only be taken off the list by constitutional and legally prescribed methods – and not in an arbitrary manner that could see persons being disenfranchised.
Despite this, the opposition continues to insist that GECOM addresses these issues ahead of the 2025 poll, claiming that to do otherwise could cast the process into controversy.
The WPA, through Dr. Hinds, reiterated this position today.
“WPA registers its concern over the uncertainty and controversy surrounding the upcoming general and regional elections. GECOM’s refusal to address the fears of the opposition parties has thrown the outcome of the elections in doubt before the first ballot is using a combination of delaying tactics and misplaced legal excuses.”
