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En GUYANA | Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine Joins Call for a New Voters List
GUYANA | Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine Joins Call for a New Voters List
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, October 21, 2022 - The Mayor of the City of Georgetown, His Worship Pt. Ubraj Narine, has joined the call for a new voters list to ensure free and fair elections in Guyana.
Mayor Narine wants the Guyana Elections Commission, GECOM to put in place a new voters list to ensure that “a level playing field is created for all actors in the electoral process.”
The following is the full text of the Georgetown Mayor’s statement:
I have noted that the Guyana Elections Commission has written to the Minister of Local Government indicating it’s readiness to hold Local Government Elections in the first quarter of 2023.
It is interesting to note that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (the in opposition) called for a new voters list in 2015 compiled on the basis of fresh house to house enumeration as part of a number of recommendations for reforms to enhance credibility in the list.
Following the 2020 National and Regional Elections the current opposition has highlighted a number of alarming anomalies which have again resurfaced called for a new list.
Recently appointed Commissioner Clement Rohee has indicated that the issue of needing a new list is determined whether a party wins an election or not.
This state of affairs cannot represent democratic norms. The people must be confident that their elected officials are reflected by a process free from influence that is fair and transparent.
We cannot be comfortable with this partisan approach to representation. Come what may the people of our country should rest assured that their elected officials are competently executing on behalf and in the interest of the citizenry.
Civil society and all right thinking Guyanese must band together to ensure that no election is held on a bloated list dictated by the Peoples Progressive Party Government and Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission.
There can be no harm in ensuring a levelled playing field is created for all actors in the electoral process. Let us be rid of this indecency.
His Worship Pt. Ubraj Narine
Mayor of the City of Georgetown
21 October, 2022
The Opposition as well as civil society have been demanding a clean list, along with improved biometrics, as allegations were made of persons voting multiple times using different identification cards.
A recent International Republican Institute survey found that 81% of Guyanese feel electoral reforms are necessary. In addition, following the 2020 elections, the CARICOM Electoral Observer Team in its final report said that “as a minimum condition of electoral reform, the Team recommends the urgent need for the total re-registration of all voters in Guyana.”
This was joined by the Organisation of American States (OAS) Observer Team’s call for the Guyana Election Commission “undertaking a house-to-house registration exercise earliest.”
The new Preliminary Voters List (PLE) has 684,354 names which represents over 91% of the total population of Guyana.