With less than two weeks before the country heads into a constitutional crisis, the David Granger – Administration Friday morning shot down a proposal to have elections held before the current voters’ list expires on April 30, 2019.
At the high-level meeting between the Head-of-State and the Guyana Elections Commission today, Opposition-nominated Commissioners submitted a proposal of a work plan for the holding of elections at the earliest possible time – April 29, 2019.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has already indicated that his parliamentarians will vote for an extension of the elections deadline of March 21, 2019 if Government commits to holding elections before April 30, 2019.
However, the proposal was not accepted and the president has sent GECOM back to the drawing board.
The Head-of-State said that the Elections Body did not give him proper guidance to empower him to announce a date for elections.
“We did not receive the sort of guidance that we need to enable me as president to make a proclamation to actually announce a date,” the President announced on a live-streamed forum.
From all indications, the Government-nominated Commissioners are pushing for house-to-house registration – which can last until November 2019 pushing the country in a constitutional crisis.
Following the passage of the no-confidence motion against the APNU/AFC coalition Government, elections are to be held in three months.
In this case, that is by March 21, 2019. If elections are not held by that date, the Government effectively becomes illegal.
The only way to extend the elections deadline is if the parliamentary opposition lends its support in the National Assembly, but Jagdeo has maintained that he will only do so if the President holds elections before April 30, 2019.
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