Nomination Day, the Lists and What They Mean – Simplified

Aright.  De ting wid Guyanese is every five years we does go in de voting booth, put we X for de symbol we like and then we wait for de results and then we go back to regular.  We really doan know how de ting does wuk.  Let me bruk it down.

When we vote every five years, we does be voting in two elections.  That is why de ting does name de General and Regional Elections.   The big one that everybody know, we does call dat de General Elections – we gun deal with this one this week fuh keep things simple.

When we vote for dat, General Elections, we does vote for a list of candidates, and  the person at de tap of de list does be de Presidential Candidate.  Is not like America wuh people does vote fuh de President alone.

The list we does vote for, that does seh who going into Parliament fuh take up 65 available seats, and de person who get de most votes does get the most seats plus dem does get to be President.  Now, and I want you stay with Uncle Ruel here, out of dem 65 seats, dem get two types.  De first type, anybody living anywhere could be a candidate for them, once you is a Guyanese citizen and a Guyanese citizen alone.  Dat is what you call National Top Up Seats – dem does account for 40 out of the 65 seats.  

Then dem got the other type of seats, is what you does call the geographical seats, and dem does count for de other 25 seats.  Dem 25 seats divide up between de 10 administrative regions in de country, roughly according to population size and for qualifiy as a candidate, you got to be registered to vote in the region you want to be a candidate in.

Dis is how de ting does divide up.  Region One – 2 seats; Region Two – 2 seats; Region Three – 3 seats; Region Four – 7 seats; Region Five – 2 seats; Region Six – 3 seats; Region Seven – 2 seats; Region Eight – 1 seat; Region Nine – 1 seat; and Region 10 – 2 seats.  You count dem up, and you see you get 25.

Now, you does have to get people to agree to sign up to be on ya list of candidates, and GECOM does require some specific things.  First of all, fuh de National Top List, you cyan bring just 40 people.  You got to bring at least 42, but dem ain’t get a upper limit.  For de regional list though, you got to bring candidates that match de number of available seats, plus a extra 2, no more no less.  So, for example, all like Region Four get 7 seat available, you got to bring exactly 9 candidates.  All like Region Eight only get 1 seat available, you got to find exactly 3 people fuh run as candidate.  That way, leh we seh you win de seat and somebody dead or lef de wuk, you got two other options to replace dem.

So when you see dem people marching today to GECOM, is basically dem list of candidates dem submitting. Now, dem get one and two ways people could compete without fully taking part but dat is it for now.  Any questions, hit us up on Facebook and we gun answer it deh.  Look out for we Senna Pod podcast from this weekend coming where we gun bruk it down in video.