UNDP offers help on electoral reform – AG’s Chambers
October 15 ,2020
UNDP Resident Representative Jairo Valverde (left) with Attorney General Anil Nandlall yesterday. (Attorney General’s Chambers photo)
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has offered to assist Guyana with electoral reform, according to a statement yesterday from the AG’s Chambers.
A release from the AG’s Chambers said that Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall yesterday met with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Jairo Valverde at which this and other matters were discussed.
The release said that Valverde commended President Irfaan Ali for committing to establishing a Commission of Inquiry (COI) to examine and investigate the events following the 2nd March, 2020, elections in Guyana and offered to provide technical help and support to implement the recommendations for improvement and changes that would be made to the electoral process after the conclusion of COI.
Nandlall thanked the UNDP for its assistance over the years to strengthening the rule of law here.
Nandlall, the release said, highlighted a number of projects that the Government of Guyana will be initiating, a component of which is to make Guyana the arbitration centre for CARICOM and Latin America as well as Constitutional Reform to strengthen Guyana’s democratic system. These projects, the Minister said, could be accomplished with technical support from the UNDP through training, public awareness and the review of Guyana’s legislative framework.
Adverting to constitutional reform which the release said has garnered much attention as a result of the events following the no-confidence motion in 2018 and the 2nd March, 2020 general elections, the Minister emphasised that while constitutional reform is needed, constitutional compliance is equally important.
“One can have the best Constitution in the World, but if politicians blatantly refuse to comply with it then society becomes dysfunctional,” the Attorney General added in the release.
Valverde said that the UNDP has in excess of 8,000 technical persons deployed across the world assisting various governments in electoral reform and other areas. He stated, according to the release, that the UNDP is as a result willing and capable of providing any assistance that the Government of Guyana would require, upon request.