| The Secretariat of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is now in full operational mode. It announced yesterday that it stands ready to conduct Local Government Elections (LGE) between March 14 and May 29, next year.Minister of Communities, Ronald BulkanThe elections, last held in 1994, had faced one delay after another because of reforms. The last piece of legislation was piloted by the new coalition government recently,Wholesale Jerseys Store, paving the way for polls.According to GECOM yesterday, this change in gear was caused by the issuance of several related orders by the Minister of Communities, including one which identifies nine towns and 62 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) where LGE will be held.The order allows GECOM to extract the voters list for the identified areas for elections from the current National Register of Registrants (NRR).The Commission explained that the fully constituted GECOM with all members present, sitting at its statutory meeting held earlier this week had already unanimously decided that the qualifying date to be used for the extraction of voters’ lists will be February 29, 2016.“As a consequence of the above,Cheap MLB Jerseys China, and given the current work plan of the GECOM Secretariat, Local Government Elections can be held no earlier than Monday, March 14,Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic, 2016 and no later than May 29, 2016.”The announcement for the actual “Election Day” will have to be made by another Ministerial Order.GECOM explained that following the extraction of the Preliminary Lists of Voters for all the local government areas, eligible voters will be invited to fully utilize the Claims and Objections period to scrutinize, sanitize and update these lists.“During this Claims and Objections period,Cheap NFL Jerseys, which will now commence on November 9,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, next, persons who will be 18 years and over as at February 29,Adidas Hockey Jerseys Cheap, 2016 will be allowed to make claims to have their registration recorded at the address in the constituency in which they live, either as new registrants or by transfer.”In addition, they will be allowed to make objections to entries in the list on which their names appear which they know do not represent persons who actually live in their respective constituencies.“Other transactions such as corrections to the recorded particulars of eligible voters and change of name,Cheap Jerseys From China, supported by the appropriate source documents, will also be permitted during this period.”To facilitate the Claims and Objections exercise, a total of 153 offices will be deployed across all the Local Government areas identified for the elections.Lists will be posted in each Electoral Division in these areas and in accordance with the relevant constituencies.The elections are critical to electing new officers for the NDCs and Town Councils.Several of the bodies have been dormant or barely operating because officials have either died or migrated.It had affected development of especially communities in the outlying areas.There has been growing local and international pressure to hold the elections.The new coalition Government had been targeting a year-end date for LGE.The David Granger administration has announced plans to vest more power in the NDCs and Town Councils. |
