PPP/C gears up for Local Government Elections

PPP
Georgetown: The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has noted the announcement with regard to the imposed December 7, 2015 deadline by the Government to hold the long-awaited Local Government Elections.
General Secretary Clement Rohee on Monday during a press briefing reiterated the Party’s readiness to participate in this national event whenever the A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Administration and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will host it.
“The Party has made its views known about this hallowed practice of the six days notice to be granted for a bill to be laid in the National Assembly and which has been violated by Government, not to mention, the stated intention to take the Local Authorities Elections Amendment Bill through all the stages at one sitting of the National Assembly slated for September 9. While the PPP/C is gearing for full participation of the Local Government Elections, it is at the same time cognisant of certain perils which may impact negatively on the quality control preparatory of the holding of these elections and during these elections itself,” said Rohee.
He explained to the media that these perils include, inter alia, the discriminatory practices vested by the returning officer, the requests for the recounting of votes which allow the return officer to be the sole arbiter in disputes that may arise with respect to votes being counted and/or the tallying of results of the constituency or municipality elections which may be triggered by the request for a recount of votes and the returning officer will be the sole arbiter to determine whether these requests will be granted or not.
The PPP General Secretary maintained that his Party was of the view that proxy voting should be restricted to one instead of two electors, while the legislation would now allow GECOM to extract the voters list from the National A Registrar to fix a new date for claims and objections from August 24 to Sept 9, 2015. A major challenge likely to surface is the well-defined demarcation of boundaries and ensuring that each and every elector is placed correctly and precisely within their respective constituencies and municipalities.
Guyana Times was told that the Opposition Party was demanding once again the launching of an aggressive, focused and targeted voter education campaign with a view to enlightening electors. This will ensure these persons have a greater degree of awareness, confidence and understanding as a result of these elections which will contribute to transparent and problem-free Local Government Elections.
Meanwhile, as it relates to Dr Steve Surujbally being the Chairman of GECOM while these elections are held, it was firmly stated that the PPP/C’s focus is to ensure that the country has transparent and free Local Government Elections.
“We are not getting into personality issues now. Now is the time for issues,” he added.