GECOM says ready for Nomination Day, some parties disagree

GECOM yesterday said that it was ready for tomorrow’s Nomination Day proceedings but several parties disagreed and called for a meeting on key issues such as the order of receipt of lists and the encoding of information.

At an impromptu  joint press conference yesterday morning outside the Umana Yana – where the lists will be received – leaders from the Alliance For Change (AFC), Alliance for Liberation and Progress (ALP), Forward Guyana, and the For the People and Country (FAPAC) parties condemned what they described as an “alarming dereliction of duty” by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

AFC Leader and Presidential Candidate Nigel Hughes expressed deep concern that, despite longstanding electoral practices, GECOM had failed to clearly outline the procedure for the submission of candidate lists. He further alleged that the Commission had arbitrarily altered the order in which parties will be allowed to submit their lists on Nomination Day — without legal justification or consultation with stakeholders.