Draft electoral reform legislation to be circulated to stakeholders next week

His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali said the long-awaited legislation to improve Guyana’s electoral system will be circulated to stakeholders in drafts next week.

He made the commitment during a virtual press conference, Friday morning.

“Only yesterday, I urged the Attorney General and what we’re working on is to have the draft legislation circulated sometime next week among all the stakeholders.”

The President said it is important that there be an efficient timeframe for the processing of the legislation.

In this regard, the President added, “I’ve also asked him that… six weeks be given for the review and for comments on the draft legislation… so that we can expeditiously move forward with this.”

The draft legislation has been heavily anticipated due to the protracted national and regional elections of 2020. The period was characterised by elections results which were stricken down by the High Court because the process used to arrive at the declaration was not in-keeping with the law.

Further controversy over the subsequently declared results caused the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to order a national recount, observed by a high-level team sent by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat.

The final results of the recount, and the declaration resulted in the unseating of the David Granger administration, and laying bare the need to revamp Guyana’s electoral system to safeguard against electoral fraud. 

The President had committed, since his first day of assuming office, that the five-month-long elections process that Guyanese painfully endured, will never again occur.