GUYANA | The Opposition's Ganesh Mahipaul wants a clean voters list for credible elections

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, October 22, 2022 - With the Government having announced that Local Government Elections will be held in March next year, Opposition’s  Shadow Minister for Local Government and Regional Development, Ganesh Mahipaul has added his voice to the chorus of calls for a credible voters list, which he says equals credible elections and equally credible results.

Mahipaul noted that at present, there was a bloated List of Electors consisting of dead people and migrants, pointing out that credible elections are important and credible elections begin with a credible list of electors.

He emphasized that in any democracy, elections are very important. However, he noted that credible elections are more important. Credible elections with credible results can only be guaranteed with a credible list of electors,” he said.

 “Elections with this list of electors will certainly not be credible elections.”

Without exception regional and international organisations that observed the 2020 General and Regional Elections have at the minimum called for a clean voters list. Local Government Elections are scheduled for March 13, 2023. This election will be held with a Preliminary Voters List representing 91 % of the population which is about 684,300 names.

According to Mahipaul “our focus as a nation must be to ensure elections that are  free and fair and free from fear, and that can only be guaranteed with a credible list which will give us credible elections and assure us with credible results.”

In the meantime, Chairman of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton said that People’s National Congress Reform-led collective would not allow the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) to take political control of the councils in its strongholds in the March 13, 2023 Local Government Elections (LGE).

While not revealing his intended methodology, Norton said his grouping would continue to press for the voters list to be scrubbed of the names of deceased persons and emigrants. “The issue for me is not contesting.

The issue for me is a clean voters list. If you want to have proper local government elections, your first task is really to get a clean voters list,” said Mr Norton, a trained Political Scientist.

The APNU Chairman slammed the PPP-led incumbent central government for going ahead with the naming of March 13 as LGE Day, despite months of lobbying for steps to be taken to produce a credible voters list.

“The government is an arrogant government that wants to rig and, therefore, for them the victory could only be based on a rigged process. If they are serious about democracy, they would not press ahead, they  would get a clean voters list,” he said.

The PPP continues to maintain that there are sufficient safeguards at polling stations to prevent voter impersonation and other forms of irregularities. These include having representatives of political parties at each polling station to verify each voter’s identification presented or by folio.

-30-