by GHK Lall As is now an almost reflexive aspect of election traditions in Guyana, there has been the usual appearing and flocking of them around this time. This would be the new faces, new voices, and the new sounds of the new political parties taking their places in the parade of aspirants for the attention and hearts of Guyanese ...
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GECOM poised to scrap supplementary voters list of persons who haven’t collected ID cards
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) seemed set to scrap its plan to have a supplementary list of thousands of voters who do not collect their national identification cards to prove that they are alive and in the country, but there is no decision yet on the new method that will be used to heighten security, an elections commissioner says. Government-backed ...
Read More »Parliament’s dissolution seems closer
The dissolution of Parliament now appears sooner as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) says it does not need any more money from government to conduct general elections next March. The Ministry of the Presidency has said that Parliament did not dissolve on December 2, 2019 – three months before general elections – because Finance Minister, Winston Jordan may have to ...
Read More »Jardine-Waddell removed as Foreign Ministry Director-General; several ambassadors to be recalled
The Guyana government on Monday announced that Audrey Jardine-Waddell has been removed from the post of Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that the post is scrapped and replaced by a Permanent Secretary. The new Permanent Secretary of the Foreign Ministry is Charlene Phoenix who has been appointed from 2nd December, 2019. Phoenix, who joined the Foreign Ministry ...
Read More »OPINION: ExxonMobil contract, from the horse’s mouth: Guyana held to ransom
by GHK Lall The Hon. Minister of Natural Resources, Mr. Raphael Trotman, MP, has now spoken a little more about what could have—perhaps, should have—been negotiated, finalized, and executed at the time with the now standing, sacrosanct ExxonMobil contract, and all of its troubling terms. Mr. Trotman is on the money on a few things about that contract, but I ...
Read More »OPINION: Manifestos: exhibitions in political pornographyÂ
by GHK Lall What is a manifesto, other than a collection of words and a rush of marketing messages? What is a manifesto, besides being a piece of paper made to mean something, especially that which the circumstances demand? Give the people what they want to hear, what sells, and the rest usually takes care of itself. As I see ...
Read More »OPINION: No longer about the lesser of two evils, just the plainness of two evils
by GHK Lall The opposition should be delighted with where it is positioned today, how it is well-poised for that decisive burst of perverse brilliance as the electoral finish line appears in sight. I would, too, given the circumstances of the competition, in view of its twisting and turning airlessness existence. For, as I see things, the opposition can conserve ...
Read More »Nominations Day for general elections is January 10, 2020
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has named January 10, 2020 as Nominations Day for parties to submit the names of candidates to contest the March 2, 2020 general elections. In a newspaper notice, GECOM asked political parties to apply for approval of their symbols no later than December 13, 2020 “to facilitate timely consideration by the commission and provide a ...
Read More »PPP’s Irfan Ali appeals to PNCR-led coalition supporters for a hearing
Presidential candidate for the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC), Irfaan Ali on Friday appealed to non-traditional supporters to give him and his party a hearing and eventually cast their ballots for the party that last ruled Guyana for 23 unbroken years. In clear reference to Afro-Guyanese – that segment of the country’s population that has largely supported the People’s National ...
Read More »PPP will put GECOM, power sharing on constitutional reform agenda
The opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on Friday promised to include power sharing and an overhaul of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in constitutional reform should it win next year’s general elections, a day after one of Guyana’s more vocal private sector organisations flayed the elections management authority for the prolonged delay in holding general elections. Speaking at the unveiling ...
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