Political parties briefed on requirements to contest elections

Newly formed political parties intent on contesting in the Regional and General elections slated for March next year.

Among the requirements political parties must have between 300 and 320 nominators countrywide as well as between 150 and 175 in each region to be eligible to contest the elections.

The briefing session of some 19 political parties was held on Thursday at the Arthur Chung Convention Center.
Chief Elections Officer, (CEO) of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Keith Lowenfield, was among the officials who met with representatives of the 19 political parties contesting the 2020 General and Regional Elections, to brief them on, among other things, the statutory requirements that pertains to the their participation of the next regional and general elections.
GECOM had announced that 19 parties would have submitted their symbols for approval, 14 of which are new parties.

The parties to contest include: A New and United Guyana (ANUG), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Federal United Party (Fed-Up), the Citizenship Initiative (CI), Change Guyana, the New Movement (TNM), People’s Republic Party (PRP), Kingdom Liberal Movement (KLM), Destiny to Oneness, National Congress of Progressive People’s Alliance, the Cooperative Republicans of Guyana and the Guyana United Democratic Party (UDP), Guyana National Service Party (GNS); the Democratic National Congress (DNC); the United Republic Party (URP), Horizon and Star and Organisation For the Victory of the People.

They will join the country’s better-known parties, A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance for Change (APNU+ AFC) coalition and the People’s Progressive Party/Civic.

As Guyana heads closer to General and Regional Elections, Nomination Day is scheduled be January 10, next year.
Nomination Day marks Guyana drawing closer to the holding of Regional and General Elections following months of uncertainty after a no- confidence vote was successfully toppled the ruling a Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) government back in December 2018.

Since then APNU+AFC and the opposition the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) have been in a tug of war over the validity of the no confidence motion.
The no-confidence motion has divided the nation with the government insisting that the vote was illegal as the parliamentarian, Charrandass Persaud, was sitting illegal in the National Assembly at that time of the vote.

The government took the matter to court. The High Court ruled that no person with dual citizenship can sit in the National Assembly but that the vote was carried, properly.
However, the Court of Appeal deemed the vote needed a greater majority.
The matter ended in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) where it was ruled that the motion was valid and elections must be held within three months.

Many observers have been calling for a smooth flow in the proceedings leading up to elections particularly the diplomatic community.

The diplomats have been nervous over what has been a testing period for Guyana.
New US ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch, has urged Guyana to have a “peaceful” reaction to the impending ruling at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on the no-confidence vote which triggered early elections.