GECOM gazettes election results, lists of MPs

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has gazetted the final results of the March 2 General and Regional Elections, as well as the lists of persons who are supposed to serve in the National Assembly from the various parties.
The gazetted order is dated August 20, 2020, and as a formality, it gazettes the results of the elections; the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) with its winning total of 233,336 votes and the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) with its total of 217,313.

It also includes the list of MPs drawn from the National Top-Up list and the geographical list. On the top-up list, the PPP has as its MPs Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, Prime Minister Brigadier Mark Phillips, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat, Minister of Labour Joseph Hamilton, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Charles Ramson, Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai, Minister of Public Works Juan Anthony Edghill.

Also included on the Top-Up list are Minister of Public Service Sonia Parag, Junior Minister of Public Works Deodat Indar, Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister Warren Mc Coy, Minister within the Ministry of Local Government Anand Persaud, Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin, veteran trade unionist Seepaul Narine, Yvonne Pearson Fredericks, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, Dharamkumar Seeraj, Bhagmattie Veerasammy, and Dr Jennifer Westford.

When it comes to the geographical list, the PPP has Minister of Housing Collin Croal as MP for Region One, Minister of Local Government Nigel Dharamlall for Region Two and Education Minister Priya Manickchand and Dr Thandika Smith for Region Three.

For Region Four, the PPP has Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd, Minister of Social Services Dr Vindhya Persaud and Junior Minister of Housing Susan Rodrigues. Faizal Jaffarally is the party’s parliamentary representative for Region Five.

For Region Six, the party’s geographical representatives are Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Dr Vishwa Mahadeo. For Region Seven, the party is represented by Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Gail Teixeira. And in Region Nine, PPP is represented by Alister Charlie.

APNU/AFC
On APNU/AFC’s geographical list are Ronald Cox for Region One, Shurwayne Holder for Region Two, Ganesh Mahipaul for Region Three. Also included are Cathy Hughes, Maureen Philadelphia, Deonarine Ramsaroop and Nima Flue-Bess for Region Four and Vinceroy Jordan for Region Five.
For Region Six, the coalition has Dineshwar Jaiprashad, while Dawn Hastings-Williams represents the party for Region Seven. Richard Sinclair represents APNU/AFC for Region Eight and in Region 10, its representatives are Jermaine Figueira and Devin Sears.

In its National Top-Up list, APNU/AFC retained former Public Service Minister Tabitha Saraboo-Halley of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) as its chosen MP. But the WPA has not only withdrawn from APNU/AFC but told the coalition to pull back Halley’s name from consideration.
On this note, there are reports that Halley has resigned from the Working People’s Alliance (WPA).
This publication was unable to make contact with Halley and when contacted, WPA Executive Dr David Hinds was unaware of her resignation.

In a letter to APNU Leader David Granger, the WPA, a party which was founded by respected historian and politician Dr Walter Rodney, had indicated a few days ago that it has withdrawn from the political group, citing several instances of the Peoples National Congress (PNC) taking and implementing decisions without the involvement of smaller parties.

The letter, which was signed by party Secretary, Tacuma Ogunseye, referred to the most recent case of the People’s National Congress (PNC) leadership unilaterally selecting persons to represent the APNU/AFC coalition in the 12th Parliament.

“To our utter embarrassment, not for the first time the WPA was informed by the media that APNU had decided on its representatives for the next National Assembly,” the letter had stated, a reference to Halley’s selection by Granger to go to Parliament.
The party explained that it was only after a letter was sent to Granger enquiring about the state of affairs that it was informed by the General Secretary of the PNCR that Halley, the Chairperson of the WPA, was one of the selected persons.