March 13, 2023 is Local Government Elections despite flawed Voters List

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, has appointed March 13, 2023 as the date for Local Government Elections.

On October 20, 2022, the minister wrote to Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice Claudette Singh, appointing the date based on the Work Plan submitted by GECOM.

“Please be informed that pursuant to Section 35 (1) of the Local Authorities (Elections) Act, Chapter 28:03, I appoint March 13, 2023, as the day on which elections of Councillors for Local Authorities shall be held.”

Order under Section 35 shall be published in the Gazette appointing the date.

The Government said it has allocated $2.9 Billion to GECOM for preparatory works for the elections.

Guyanese are returning to the polls with a Voters List that has attracted widespread criticisms at home and from regional and international bodies. At present the Preliminary Voters List has about 684,300 names which represents over 91% of Guyana’s total population. Weekly protestors make their presence felt at GECOM headquarters, on High Street, in Georgetown demanding a clean voters list as a prerequisite for any future elections.

CARICOM, in its report resulting from the 2020 National Recount exercise, stated “as a minimum condition of electoral reform, the Team recommends the urgent need for the total re-registration of all voters in Guyana. It therefore behooves the Commission to create a new voter registry especially given the suspicion that the 2020 register was bloated, a suspicion which is not without merit.”

The Organisation of American States (OAS) called for the “undertaking a house-to-house registration exercise earliest.” This was a position the then opposition People’s Progressive Party supported in 2015.

The A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), individually and collectively having been demanding House to House registration, which was a position supported by the PPP in Opposition. In 2022 President Ali says the List is not the problem.

On Thursday, Chairperson of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Mrs. Cathy Hughes told Demerara Waves the party has reservations going to the elections with a flawed list. Hughes is quoted saying “If we are going to have any elections, if we are going to talk about democracy, we must have a system that everybody has confidence in. If not, you’ll have half the population unhappy and what kind of actions would you have as a result of that.”

At the national level Guyanese are highly dissatisfied with the list. A recent International Republican Institute’s survey found 81% of Guyanese feel electoral reforms are necessary.