GECOM confident that LGE will be conducted in accordance with the law

–lessons learned from 2020 General Elections to be implemented

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has expressed confidence that this year’s Local Government Elections (LGE) will be held in accordance with the law, and a number of mechanisms are in place to ensure this.

Chairperson of the commission, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, made the disclosure at a press conference held at GECOM’s Command Centre, Fort and Barrack Streets, Kingston, Georgetown.

“A lot of preparation was done, the staff was well trained… and I am confident that everything will go very smoothly,” she said.

Chief Elections Officer, Vishnu Persaud, mirrored these sentiments, noting that GECOM has a cohesive team, which is focused and committed to acting within the parameters of their responsibilities towards the efficient, effective, and satisfactory delivery of their functions.

“We had a lengthy registration exercise, we had claims and objections exercises, the preparatory exercises for LGE, and as CEO, I have no reason to fear or worry that we will have any type of undermining of the operations of the secretariat in so far as the proper conduct of the elections are concerned,” he expressed.

Meanwhile, Deputy CEO, Anneal Giddings, who led the logistics operations during the 2020 General Elections, said previous elections exercises—most notably, the 2020 General Elections and 2018 LGE— have served as a compendium of lessons on what areas need improvement moving forward.

“We would have made some operational adjustments to how we do things, to ensure that we avoid any untoward situation that may have occurred in the past, and to increase efficiency. So… we are ahead of the game,” he assured.

The ballot boxes have been packed, and containers dispatched for the smooth conduct of the LGE on Monday, June 12.

As part of the preparatory process, GECOM accredited 10 groups as local observers of the process.