GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Wednesday said named the two senior Commonwealth advisors who will be arriving here in early January next year to observe the preparations and conduct of the March2, 2020 general elections.
GECOM chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh, told a news conference that the former chairman of the Ghana Electoral Commission Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and former chief elections commissioner of India, Dr Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi, will provide support to GECOM.
Afari-Gyan is a Ghanaian academic, political scientist and election administrator, who also served as chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana from 1993 to 2015, while Zaidi served as chief elections commissioner of India for five years between 2012 to 2017. He previously served as a diplomat and Director General of Civil Aviation of India.
Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield , told reporters that through the United States Embassy, the International Republic Institute (IRI) will be providing technical support to GECOM.
The institute will be working with GECOM to develop a Civic and Voter Education package. Both parties have met and GECOM has outlined certain conditions for the development of the item.
“I am advised that their civic and voter education package should commence in January,” he added.
GECOM said that in addition, two Jamaican nationals will also form part of the IRI team that will be providing technical support to the Commission in the preparation of this document, among others.
In October, GECOM announced that Jean-Pierre Kingsley, who served as Canada’s chief electoral officer for 17 years, would be providing technical electoral aid Singh.
Kingsley will be available for consultation and is expected to arrive here in January. His assistance is being funded by the Canadian High Commission and will cover the period between October to March.
Lowenfield also said that GECOM has received submissions from several organisations interested in becoming election observers and that the matter will be discussed early next year.
They include the American Chamber of Commerce in Guyana, Private Sector Commission, Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU).
Several political parties are expected to contest the election that political observers say would in the end be a straight fight between the ruling coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) government of President David Granger and the main opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
The APNU, a coalition including the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) and the Alliance for Change (AFC), defeated the PPP/C in the 2015 elections, but the opposition party was successful in tabling a motion of no confidence last December after a government legislator sided with it and overcoming the one-seat majority the government had enjoyed. (CMC)