By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News
Opposition figure Amanza Walton-Desir is setting her sights on the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), questioning the legitimacy of Commonwealth nationals being allowed to vote in Guyana’s elections.
Speaking on a weekend radio program, Walton-Desir, leader of the Forward Guyana Movement, said her party has formally written GECOM outlining several concerns from the recently concluded general and regional elections. At the top of the list: the issue of ineligible Commonwealth citizens casting ballots and its implications for the country’s democracy.
“It is possible for citizens of a foreign state to come in and completely alter the political course of this country and then fly back home,” Walton-Desir argued.
She expressed disappointment that GECOM Chair, Justice Claudette Singh, has not formally acknowledged receipt of her party’s correspondence, noting that Commissioner Vincent Alexander was the only one to respond.
“So you would think that if a political entity—or even an ordinary Guyanese citizen—asks for information of this importance, there would be some acknowledgment,” she added.
Walton-Desir confirmed she has since written GECOM again, urging the commission to address the matter. “Can you imagine what we are opening the door to—that every five years a group of people can come in, determine the direction of our elections, and then go back home?”
Her latest stance comes after a difficult two weeks in which she faced public fallout with coalition partner V-PAC, and court rulings that dismissed her case and ordered her to pay damages amounting to over $2 million.
