Territorial elections maintained on June 20 and 27

The appointment at the polls is still relevant today. The government has indeed decided to maintain the territorial elections in Guyana on the dates of June 20 and 27 despite a still strong circulation of the coronavirus, announced the Ministry of Overseas on Monday.

The government says it made its decision after the opinion of the scientific council issued on Saturday and consultation of parliamentarians, elected officials and socio-economic actors of Guyana, brought together by the prefect of Guyana on Monday.

Epidemic resumption at the end of March

Guyanese territory is still experiencing very strong circulation of Covid-19, in particular its Gamma variant identified for the first time in Brazil in January, with a containment measure in force. “Since the end of March 2021, Guyana has experienced a difficult epidemic recovery which only seems to be starting to improve”, the scientific council noted in its opinion.

“A strong regional heterogeneity of the incidence and its dynamics is observed in this department which, in area, is equivalent to five departments of metropolitan France”, however underline the scientists who also point out the low rate of vaccination. “In Guyana, only 12.9% of the population received a primary vaccination, against 39.9% in mainland France”, they complete.

An electoral campaign on social networks

For the scientific council, which referred the decision to postpone the poll to the political authorities only, “strict compliance with health protocols and barrier gestures is likely, on a theoretical level, to reduce or even eliminate all risks”.

“In Guyana, the electoral campaign being played mainly on social networks, the major risk seems linked to the announcement of the results and the gatherings or festivities that it could provoke”, further observed the scientific council.