GUYANA | Local Government Elections Set For 13th March 2023

GEORGETOWN,  October 22, 2022 - Guyana’s much anticipated Local Government Elections will take place on the 13th March, 2023 according to a Government of Guyana announcement on Friday.

The announcement was made after the Minister of Local Government, Nigel Dharamlall wrote to the Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission retired Justice Claudette Singh informing her of the appointed date.

The Government has also announced that an Order shall be published in the Official Gazette appointing the date.

Retired Justice Singh earlier this week wrote to the Minister informing him that the Elections could take place in the first quarter of the new year, with the earliest date being the 13th March.

The statement said that as part of the Government’s commitment to the hosting of the elections, some $2.9 Billion was allocated to the Elections Commission for preparatory works to ensure the successful planning and execution of LGE.

The March 13, 2023 Local Government Elections will be the first local elections since the PPP took office in August 2020.

The last time the elections took place was in November 2018. 

The Opposition APNU+AFC has not yet indicated whether it will be participating in the local polls as a coalition or whether the two parties will go separately, as was done in 2018.

The Opposition has been indicating that if there was no fresh house to house registration  which would lead to a clean voters list, it would not participate in any new elections.

Now that the date has  been announced, both the People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)  and the Khemraj Ramjattan led Alliance For Change (AFC) are yet to officially say whether they will participate in the election.