7 parties submit lists of candidates to GECOM

Of the 21 political parties that signalled an interest in contesting the upcoming General and Regional Elections on September 1 by submitting party symbols to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), only seven of them presented their respective lists of candidates today – Nomination Day.

These include the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), which will be contesting in all ten administrative regions.

The others are We Invest In Nationhood (WIN) led by United States-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed which will be contesting in all ten regions; the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP) led by former APNU+AFC minister Simona Broomes which will be contesting in six regions, and Forward Guyana led by former APNU parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir which will be contesting in seven regions.

The Horizon and Star Party led by Hubert Maloney also submitted lists of candidates to GECOM.

GECOM will now scrutinise the lists for any possible defects. These lists include a Geographical Constituency List, a National Top-Up List and a Regional Democratic Council List.

Each parties’ National Top-Up List should comprise of 300-330 nominators, 42 candidates (persons to be elected to sit in the National Assembly) who all need a signed statutory declaration form in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths or Justice of Peace, and include the name of the Presidential Candidate.

The Statutory Declaration form is what candidates sign to indicate that they are Guyanese and conform to other requirements set out in the law such as that they are not a citizen of any other country.

The Geographical Constituency (Administrative Regions) List must include 150-175 nominators from each constituency.

For those contesting the Regional Elections, the Regional Democratic Council List must comprise of 150-175 nominators for each constituency – all residing in the said region, and 12 to 36 candidates also from within the region. They too are required to sign a statutory form.

Candidates and Nominators can only appear on one party’s list including on both the National Top-up and Geographical Constituency Lists, but can only appear on one of that party’s geographical lists.

With Guyana’s National Assembly comprised of 65 elected members, 25 of these are elected from the 10 Geographical Constituencies and the remaining 40 from the National Top-Up list. Parties also have to ensure that one-third of the candidates nominated are female.

If any of these issues are detected with the lists, the respective parties will be informed and given an opportunity to make the necessary amendments.

GECOM has a software that it has been using since 2006, which has been finetuned over the years, to run the lists from each political parties to identify defects such as repetition of names where they ought not to be.

For those lists with defects, the respective party will be informed by GECOM on July 15 and they will have until July 17 to make the corrections. GECOM will give final approval or disapproval of the lists on July 18. Thereafter, provisions are made for any party to take legal action to contest GECOM’s decision.

During this time also, parties can make withdrawals or notification of death of candidates to GECOM by July 15; submit withdrawals of lists by July 17; and submit notification of Joinder of Lists by July 21.

GECOM will then be publishing the final and approved lists, titles and symbols on July 23 after a rigorous vetting process to ensure that all the submissions are in compliance with the various legal practices and procedures.

Speaking with reporters on Nomination Day on Monday, after the seven parties made their submissions, Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud explained that once the lists are approved, the ballot papers would be prepared and printed overseas.

In the meantime, GECOM will streamline logistics for the hosting of elections and start preparations for Disciplined Services Voting, which will be done ten days before September 1.

This year, there will be about 2785 polling stations, an increase from those established in 2020.

According to the CEO, this is because GECOM has restricted the number of voters per polling station to 400; it was previously 450.

Meanwhile, once there are no issues, GECOM anticipates making a public declaration of the elections results by the end of the second day after the polls. However, if there is a recount, the declaration could be delayed.

CEO Persaud reminded that Statement of Polls (SOPs) will be posted on GECOM website, therefore, “the results can be known even before we declare it”.