GECOM ready for September 1 elections – Gunraj

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will be ready to host General and Regional Elections across the country on September 1, according to commissioner Sase Gunraj.

This commitment was made by Gunraj during an interview with the press on Tuesday outside the GECOM Secretariat in Georgetown, ahead of a statutory meeting involving Chairperson Justice Retired Claudette Singh.

There is a revised workplan submitted by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud and according to Gunraj, this plan will be discussed during the commission’s statutory meeting.

He was also adamant that there ought to be no statutory roadblocks to meeting the September 1 election date.

Gunraj’s views would clash with his Opposition-nominated colleagues at GECOM. At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Commissioners Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin claimed that GECOM is not in a state of readiness to conduct elections on September 1. They claimed that the last workplan discussed at the Commission level had a September 22nd date for readiness.

That being said, however, the Commissioners shied away from saying whether the GECOM Chairperson acted unlawfully in providing the President with an expedited date on which the Secretariat can hold elections. In fact, the Opposition-aligned Commissioners admitted that they have not finished examining the newly expedited work plan in circulation.

Additionally, Alexander noted in his opening statement that it is the President’s prerogative to name a date for elections after consulting with the Chairperson. And according to Corbin in response to a question from the media, there is a difficulty with seeking legal redress for internal GECOM matters.

When asked directly whether the issues they raised are embedded in law, Corbin admitted that they are not. He noted that certain timelines are indeed discretionary at the level of GECOM.