FGM, PNCR Leaders Split on GECOM Reform
By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News.
On Tuesday, Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) presidential candidate Amanso Walton-Desir called for urgent reforms to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), declaring it “no longer useful in its current configuration.” Walton-Desir insisted that GECOM’s structure cannot reflect Guyana’s political reality unless new parties like FGM and WIN are represented.
However, at a Friday press conference, People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) leader Aubrey Norton pushed back. While acknowledging the need to improve how GECOM functions, Norton said he sees “no problem with the system if it is allowed to work.”
Norton argued that past GECOM chairs demonstrated the commission can operate effectively if both sides focus on consensus-building, rather than altering its composition.
The sharp difference in views highlights a brewing debate between Norton and Walton-Desir, who is set to take up FGM’s lone parliamentary seat, over whether structural change or improved management is the way forward for Guyana’s electoral system.
