The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Friday offered guarantees that all systems are in place for a smooth run-off of Monday’s local government elections.
It accompanied an assurance by Chief Elections Officer, Vishnu Persaud that some of the election results could be expected before midnight on Monday.
At a press conference on Friday, Persaud said for the areas where there is no contest, those results could be declared immediately after the close of polls at 18:00 hrs.
“It will not be a tedious thing to put together results for smaller local authority areas and I see no difficulty in Returning Officers declaring their results before mid-night,” Persaud said while noting that this could be affected by objections.
There is no contest in well over 200 of the 610 constituencies. The 610 constituencies are part of 80 larger local authority areas.
Commenting directly on GECOM’s state of readiness, Chairman (retired) Justice Claudette Singh said the electoral body was fully prepared and she had the confidence that the elections will be implemented in accordance with the law.
“As chairperson, I shall surely guarantee that these elections will be conducted in a free, fair, transparent and credible manner,” Singh said.
Similar assurances were given by the Chief Elections Officer and his Deputy Aneal Giddings.
“I am assuring from the position of the secretariat of our high level of confidence relative to ensuring these elections are conducted in the desired manner not only from our end but in so far as our stakeholders are concerned,” Persaud said.
“We are ahead of the game with the implementation of our listed activities,” Persaud added, assuring reporters that there was 100 per cent staffing in place.
Giddings was directly charged with overseeing the packing of containers and the dissemination of election material for E-Day and he said the secretariat’s work was not lagging in this regard.
Polls open at 06:00 hrs on Monday across the country and citizens will be voting to elect local leaders. A total of 10 local groups have been accredited as observers for these elections.
GECOM says there will be no electronic publication of statements of polls but it will be available at the place of count.
