The president of the Territorial Collectivity of Guyana, asked the Prime Minister this Thursday to postpone the second round of the municipal elections. In his letter, he warns of the “generalization of the epidemic” of coronavirus in the territory.
"Today we see a dissemination of cases in all parts of the territory, including in municipalities which until then had never been affected", writes Rodolphe Alexandre, judging that "we are now unable to foresee how the epidemic will evolve. " "I ask you to consider now the cancellation" of the second round of municipal elections, "and as a result of the election as a whole in Guyana", he continues, estimating "incoherent even unreasonable to call the people concerned to move en masse to go to vote, while we do not stop at the same time to multiply the calls to the population to limit their movements.
An election that risks being “skewed”
He said that he was "perfectly aware that the retention in office for several months of mayors weakened by sometimes unfavorable first round results is something very problematic", but "the discomfort of such a situation cannot in any case justify that we make our citizens take risks for their health, ”he adds. The president of the community also stresses that the result of the election risks being “distorted, as much by the inability of the candidates to campaign in good conditions (…) as by the probability of a high rate of abstention ”.
The prefect of Guyana on Wednesday issued a decree tightening the conditions of assembly and movement of the population, even providing for a reconfiguration for the 16 municipalities (out of 22) affected by the virus, from Saturday 9 p.m. to Monday 5 a.m. During this period, only brief trips within the limit of one hour daily and within a radius of one kilometer around the home are authorized, "linked to the individual physical activity of people, to walking with the only people grouped in the same home, or the needs of pets ”. Guyana has Thursday 917 reported cases, including 35 hospitalizations and 7 people in intensive care.
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