PPP’s GECOM Commissioners: Elections ‘eminently possible’ in shortest possible time

The three Commissioners representing the opposition PPP on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) say elections are eminently possible in the shortest possible time and have again cited the Government for trying to further delay the polls.

The statement from the three Commissioners – Sase Gunraj, Robeson Benn and Bibi Shadick– follows a meeting between GECOM and representatives of the governing Coalition on Friday.

“It was very clear, from the outset, that the purpose of the meeting was to intimidate the Commission into participating in its ploy to delay elections,” the PPP Commissioners stated.

They claimed that there was no prior request for a meeting and a request only surfaced after the meeting with the Leader of the Opposition, at which the Chairman, Justice Claudette Singh, S.C. C.C.H., expressed a desire to “conduct elections before the end of the year.”

The PPP Commissioners said that the contributions of the members of the government delegation if implemented, could only lead to further delay.

They claimed that at the meeting, Attorney General Basil Williams cited the pending appeal against the decision of the Chief Justice in Christopher Ram v. Guyana Elections Commission, Attorney General et al, including the filing of an application for a stay of execution.

“It seems as though he wants to delay the holding of elections until the hearing of this matter, possibly by the Caribbean Court of Justice,” the PPP Commissioners stated.

Gunraj, Shadick and Benn said a question was posed by the delegation to the Chairman about the statement attributed to her regarding the holding of elections before the end of the year and same was confirmed by her.

“We maintain that in keeping with the constitutional prescriptions in Article 106(6), and the admonitions of the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Chief Justice in the various cases resulting from the successful passage of the No-Confidence Motion, General and Regional Elections should be held in the shortest possible time. We reiterate that this is eminently possible.”