The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is calling on the Carter Centre to immediately publicly state its position on the “unilateral” move by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to substantially reduce the number of polling places in rural areas.
In a statement to the media this afternoon, the PSC pointed out that it has checked, and is informed that the Carter Center in its final report, following the 2015, elections made no such recommendation.
In fact, the PSC said it is dismayed at the claim reported in the media to have been made by the Chairman of GECOM that the decision to change the location of these polling places is in response to a recommendation made by the Carter Center that private residences, should not be used as polling places.
The Commission said that this move by the electoral body will see the “very real possibility that a significant number of voters may be disenfranchised by the cut in polling places.
According to the statement, “The Private Sector Commission wishes to point out that, while GECOM is bound in law to observe the statutory process requiring the Chief Election Officer to act within the authority of the Commission, he appears to have acted unilaterally and on his own by changing the location of polling places between January and February and without informing the contesting political parties.”
The PSC said it must point out that, in any event, GECOM has in fact identified a number of private residences for polling places and mainly in the urban area of Georgetown.
“The Private Sector Commission is aware that the Chief Elections Officer had presented to the Commission in January a document assigning polling places which was acceptable to the contesting political parties who are represented on the Commission.”
Given the fact that the Nation heads to the polls in a week’s time, the PSC said it is urging that GECOM at the very minimum, promptly reverse its last minute and abrupt changes made in February to the assignment of polling places to those originally agreed upon in January.
