The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) will be seeking sanctions against Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) who represent the Government’s interest. The Commissioners are Desmond Trotman, Charles Corbin and Vincent Alexander.
Making this declaration moments ago was Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo. At his weekly press conference, the PPP General Secretary explained that these sanctions are being called for after the three Commissioners and GECOM Chairman, retired Justice James Patterson, voted on Tuesday to inform President, David Granger that General and Regional Elections cannot be held in 90 days.
Jagdeo said, “We believe they received instructions from government and apart from that, many of them have pecuniary interests that would be threatened by early elections. Their political role at GECOM is to delay elections. They are in breach of their statutory duties and responsibilities as GECOM Commissioners and are in breach of the Constitution…And so they have had to invent all sort of excuses as to why they can’t move forward…”
In this regard, the Opposition Leader reminded that two timelines were proposed for elections. If a period of claims and objections are to held then elections would have been possible in July, 2019. But with house-to-house registration, elections would be held in February 2020. Jagdeo bemoaned the fact that on Tuesday, the Commissioners spoke nothing about when GECOM would be ready or whether they have started preparations on elections.
The Opposition Leader said, “Clearly this is untenable and we will not sit idly by and allow GECOM to subvert the Constitution to its will. It is a creature and it must act accordingly. We have seen in other parts of the world how politically aligned elections commission are dealt with by the international community. And this is a standard example…”
The PPP General Secretary said that he will be seeking sanctions against the Executive when it becomes illegal after the March 19 deadline. And equally important he said, will be the move by the PPP to have sanctions brought against GECOM and the Government’s Commissioners.
