Georgetown: Legal provisions regarding the use of proxies will be followed, according to Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr Steve Surujbally.“We will follow the law,” he declared emphatically, in an invited comment yesterday, when asked to respond to concerns raised by the ruling party.
General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee expressed concern over the “seeming abuse” of proxies by the political Opposition.
“Our field work has led us to suspect that known Opposition leaders at the community/local level are filling and submitting proxy applications for persons who are scheduled to leave the country before Election Day and for others who are physically able to visit the polling station to cast their vote,” he said.
As such, Rohee called on the Commission to ensure that proper verification of all proxies are done in accordance with the prescribed procedure and only those deserving are awarded proxy voting.
In response to the PPP’s call, Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, reiterated the Chairman’s sentiments and disclosed that the verification of proxies are expected to commence today.
“To date we have 865 proxies filed. The reasons for the proxies I do not know,” he said, adding that the stakeholders in the electoral process can be assured that detailed verifications will be done.
Lowenfield noted too that GECOM staffers have been briefed and there will be no “sample or survey” checks, rather complete verifications will be done.
“We have a procedure that sees our staff and party agents investigate all proxies,” he declared.
Proxy voting is guided by Section 30 of the Representation of the People’s Act. Applications for proxies have to be sent to GECOM’s Returning Officers no later than the 10th day before Elections Day, in this case by May 1st. According to the law, election agents on the fourth day before Election Day have the right to review and copy the list of persons who are slated to vote by proxy.
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