President announces February 28 as date for Parliament’s dissolution

Georgetown, GINA, February 24, 2015

President Donald Ramotar announced today that he has signed the proclamation to dissolve the 10th Parliament of Guyana on February 28, and the 10 Regional Democratic Councils. This announcement follows the Head of State’s decision to prorogue the 10th Parliament of Guyana.
In an address this evening to the nation, the President reminded that this move was taken to allow the parties in Parliament additional opportunities to talk and “hopefully resolve the pressing national issues that were confronting us”.
The president said he also wanted to give the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) time to have another round of continuous registration to enfranchise those persons, who, through no fault of their own, did not have the source document to be registered. Despite all of this, he noted, the political opposition “unfortunately” refused to dialogue and he was left with no option but to call elections for May 11, 2015.
In explaining the reason for delaying the dissolution of the National Assembly, he said, “I did not dissolve the Parliament at the same time because had I done so, the claims and objections period which also allows for transfers would have been truncated. Were the latter to have occurred, thousands of Guyanese voters who changed their place of residence would not have been able to obtain their transfers and this could have led to them being disenfranchised”.
Given that the Claims and Objections period, President Ramotar explained, ended on February 22, 2015, this cleared the way for him to dissolve the Parliament. As he previously announced, General and Regional Elections will be held on May 11, 2015.

You might also like