Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo Friday night appeared to tone down calls for President David Granger to announce an early election date after Guyana’s Court of Appeal ruled that the no-confidence motion was not validly passed. He, however, said his People’s Progressive Party (PPP) would continue to demand that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) be in a state of readiness for ...
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GECOM’s Alexander rubbishes Jagdeo’s house-to-house rigging claims
One of Guyana’s governing coalition-appointed Elections Commissioners, Vincent Alexander, has slammed Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo for accusing the Commission of plotting to rig the upcoming general elections through house-to-house registration. “All that he has said is so unsubstantiated. It is unbelievable that he is an ex-president of this country,” Alexander told Demerara Waves Online News. Jagdeo earlier this week charged ...
Read More »Granger, Jagdeo still tussling over polling date after Carter Center proposal
President David Granger appeared to be holding out for general elections in November after house-to-house registration despite a proposal by the United States’ Carter Center that could allow for earlier polls in August. “In the circumstances, I am instructed to inform you that His Excellency the President intends to shortly name a date for general and regional elections in Guyana ...
Read More »Jagdeo says GECOM, coalition plot to rig elections through updating voters’ list
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Wednesday accused the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) of conspiring with the governing coalition to rig the general elections by replacing the current voters’ list through house-to-house registration. He told a news conference that the PPP would continue to pile pressure on the David Granger-led administration, through peaceful protests and legal action until he calls early ...
Read More »GECOM Chairman tells President general elections possible in November; PPP elections commissioners say there’s no law, policy for house-to-house registration
The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), James Patterson, has informed President David Granger that general elections should be possible in November 2019 after house-to-house registration, but the opposition People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) elections commissioners said such a process is not grounded in law or policy. “In consideration of all of the above, the fulfillment of the various conditions ...
Read More »GECOM avoids ERC questions on alleged race-based employment practices
The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on Monday said the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) did not provide information to prove whether elections commissioner Robeson Benn’s claim that more than 90 percent of the workers there are Afro-Guyanese. The ERC also said Benn, who had first raised the issue and had triggered a complaint by his People’s Progressive Party (PPP) did not ...
Read More »OPINION: Naming an elections date – who is who and what is what
By GHK Lall It does not appear that there is anything on which the government and opposition can agree regarding the elections machinery as a whole, and the state of elections readiness by GECOM. To repeat for emphasis: almost nothing, if absolutely not anything. So there is a hard, jarring standstill on most things, except the clashing rhetoric, which only ...
Read More »More controversy over GECOM’s decision leading up to general elections
The seven-member Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is embroiled in fresh controversy over the timeframe for holding general elections, with the opposition party-appointed commissioners denying that voting was underway on house-to-house registration and the ruling APNU+AFC-backed commissioners stating that the motion was passed. The three opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) elections commissioners – Sase Gunraj, Bibi Shadick and Robeson Benn – ...
Read More »Lawyer asks Court of Appeal to step in and set election date timeframe
As the 90-day deadline for early elections triggered by a no-confidence motion is set to expire next week, the Guyana Court of Appeal was Wednesday asked to set a new period within which the polls must be held. Attorney-at-Law, Kamal Ramkarran, who is representing political commentator Christopher Ram in a no-confidence motion-related case, urged the three-member panel of judges to ...
Read More »United States points to “genuinely free and fair elections”; Guyana reiterates “non-interference”
Newly-appointed United States (US) Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch on Wednesday said the US would back free and fair general and regional elections. “Moving forward, we will continue to encourage genuinely free and fair elections, freedom of speech and assembly, multiparty representation and a constitutional judiciary process,” she said immediately after presenting her credentials to President David Granger. Ambassador Lynch’s ...
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