783M approved to hold Local Government Elections
Just over $5B was on Monday approved for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). The sum also contains $783M for the holding of Local Government Elections.
It is anticipated that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will hold overdue Local Government Elections this year.
To this end, sums have been allocated in the 2022 National Budget to hold the elections across all the local democratic organs and cover the associated expenses to ensure a smooth process.
That was Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira, who with the support of Chief Elections Officer Vishnu Persaud, defended the Commission’s budget on Monday.
The Commission was allocated a total of five billion, eight million nine hundred thirty-seven thousand dollars.
Questions were posed by the Opposition in relation to allocations to prepare a new voter’s list. However, Ms. Teixeira noted that the preparation of such a list is dependent the decisions to be made by the Commission.
In the meantime, there is provisions in the budget for continuous registration for new voters.
Local Government Elections was last held in 2018. Citizens were expected to return to the local polls in 2020, however, this was postponed to hold General and Regional Elections which prolonged for five months before the results were declared.
The polls to select leaders for Town Councils and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils were again called off in 2021 as GECOM lacked many key staff to hold an elections.
