The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has informed at least three political parties that their lists of candidates submitted are defective and are in need of correction by Thursday midnight.
The parties are the Alliance For Change (AFC) whose presidential candidate is Nigel Hughes, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) whose presidential candidate is United States-sanctioned businessman Azruddin Mohamed, and Forward Guyana, whose presidential candidate is Amanza Walton-Desir.
When contacted today, AFC’s David Patterson said the issue was related to two of its regional lists wherein the maximum requirement of candidates needed to be met.
With regards to WIN, a spokesperson informed that the issues surrounded the repetition of a few names.
Meanwhile, Walton-Desir confirmed that GECOM informed of issues with their lists but did not divulge what they were; instead, she said a press release will be issued shortly.
If the parties are unable to rectify the issues outlined, they could not qualify to contest the upcoming elections on September 1.
Seven parties submitted lists of candidates to GECOM on Monday. GECOM immediately began the scrutinisation of the various lists to ensure they comply with the legal requirements.
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 are 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.
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.
The other parties that submitted lists are the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), and the Assembly for Liberty and Prosperity (ALP).
The Horizon and Star Party led by Hubert Maloney also made a submission to GECOM.
INews has not been able to confirm if any of the other parties’ lists are defective/require correction.
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