Guyana

Table of Contents:

• Exclusion or Potential Exclusion Based on Disability
• Assistive Tools and Policies
• Candidacy or Holding Office

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Section 12, subsection 9 states:

In the event of the name of the person designated by any list of candidates as a Presidential candidate being deleted pursuant to section 21 from the list -

• (a) the representative of the list; or
• (b) if there is no representative or if the representative is unwilling or unable (by reason of absence, illness or any other cause) to act, the deputy representative of the list; or
• (c) in the case oœ any such unwillingness or inability on the part of the deputy representative or if there is no deputy representative, a majority of persons named as candidates in the list may designate in writing any such person able and willing to act, who shall forthwith and before election day, by written notice signed by him and delivered to the Elections Commission, amend the list by designating any person whose name remains as a candidate on the list as the Presidential candidate designated by that list.

 

Section 98 states:

When seats have, in pursuance of section 97, been allocated .to any list of candidates-…

(c) in case of any such unwillingness or inability on the part of the deputy representative, a majority of the persons named in that list may designate in writing any such person able and willing (when called upon as aforesaid) so to do. who, shall extract from the said list as many names belonging to candidates selected by him for the purpose, including his own name, as if he has not ben declared elected as President under article 177 of the Constitution as can be so extracted without their number exceeding the number of seats allocated to that list; and the Chief Election Officer shall declare such names, in the order of their extraction as aforesaid, to be the names of the candidates on such list who have been elected.

 

Excerpts from the Representation of the People Act (1974, last amended 1998)

 

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Section 11, subsection 2 states:

A list of candidates shall be in Form 2; and the submission shall bear the signature of each person submitting the same together with his name and the serial number of his registration card: Provided that if any such person is unable to sign his name, his mark, made against his name written by some other person, shall be deemed to be his signature for the purposes of this paragraph but not for the purposes of section 12.

 

Section 27 states:
(3) Every elector who votes at an election shall, subject to the provisions of this Act relating to voting by proxy and to the marking of ballot papers on behalf of blind and incapacitated electors, vote at a polling place in person

 

Section 30 states:

(1) The following electors shall be entitled to vote by proxy at an election-

• (c) those unable, or likely to be unable, by reason either of blindness or any other physical incapacity, to go in person to the polling place or, if able to go, to vote unaided.

(2) Not more than one person shall be appointed to vote as a proxy on behalf of any one elector.

(3) No person shall be appointed to vote as a proxy-

• (a) on behalf of another elector unless he is himself an elector who is entitled to vote at the same polling place as that at which the elector on whose behalf his appointment is sought is entitled to vote;
• (b) for more than two electors.

4. An elector voting as a proxy on behalf of another elector so shall do at the same polling place and at the same time as he votes on his own behalf.

 

Section 54, paragraph (a), subparagraph (iii), part (a) states:

[Regarding voting by nonresident electors] if the non-resident elector is incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause from personally complying with the fore-going provisions of this paragraph, the ballot attendant may, at the request of the non-resident elector comply or permit a person appointed by the non-resident elector comply with any such provisions on his behalf, in his presence and according to his directions.

 

Section 73, subsection 1 states:

The presiding officer, on the application of any voter who is incapacitated by blindness or any other physical cause from voting in the manner prescribed by section 72 and who takes an oath in Form 21, mark the ballot paper of such elector in his presence and in the manner directed by him.

(2) The presiding officer may at the request of any elector who is incapacitated in the manner prescribed in subsection (1) and who has taken the oath in Form 22 and is accompanied by a friend, permit such friend, if he is an elector entitled to vote at the polling place, immediately after he has voted on his own behalf and notwithstanding that his finger has been immersed in electoral ink, to accompany the elector into the voting compartment and mark his ballot for him: provided that no person may mark the ballot paper of more than one lector as his friend.

 

Section 73, subsection 3 states:

Whenever any voter has had his ballot paper marked in accordance with this section, the poll clerk shall enter in to the poll book opposite the name of the elector the fact that the ballot paper was so marked by a friend, the name and the number of the official list of electors of that friend.

 

Section 110, subsection 1 states:

Where the election expenses return or any expenses declaration has not been submitted as required by section 108, or having been submitted contains an error or a false statement, then-

• (a) if any candidate applies to the High Court, and shows that his failure to submit an election expenses declaration or any part thereof, or any error or false statement therein has arisen by reason of his illness, or of the absence, death, illness or misconduct of another candidate or of the election agent or of an assistant agent or of any clerk or officer employed by the election agent, or by reason of inadvertence or of any reasonable cause of a like nature, and not by reason of any want of good faith on the part of the applicant; or
• (b) if an election agent applies to the High Court and shows that his failure to submit the return and his declaration, or either of them, or any part thereof, or any error or false statement therein, has arisen by reason of his illness, or by reason of the absence, death, illness or misconduct of a candidate or of a former election agent of the group or of an assistant agent or of any clerk or officer employed by the election agent, or by reason of inadvertence or of any reasonable cause of a like nature, and not by reason of any want of good faith on the part of the applicant; the court may, on being satisfied that notice of the application has been published in two newspapers circulating in Guyana, and on production of such evidence of the grounds stated in the application, and of the good faith of the application, and otherwise, as to the court seems fit, make an order allowing an authorised excuse for the failure to submit the return or any declaration as the case may be or for any error or a false statement therein, as to the court seems just.

 

Excerpts from the Representation of the People Act (1974, last amended 1998)

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Section 12, subsection 9 states:

In the event of the name of the person designated by any list of candidates as a Presidential candidate being deleted pursuant to section 21 from the list -

• (a) the representative of the list; or
• (b) if there is no representative or if the representative is unwilling or unable (by reason of absence, illness or any other cause) to act, the deputy representative of the list; or
• (c) in the case oœ any such unwillingness or inability on the part of the deputy representative or if there is no deputy representative, a majority of persons named as candidates in the list may designate in writing any such person able and willing to act, who shall forthwith and before election day, by written notice signed by him and delivered to the Elections Commission, amend the list by designating any person whose name remains as a candidate on the list as the Presidential candidate designated by that list.

 

Section 98 states:

When seats have, in pursuance of section 97, been allocated .to any list of candidates-…

(c) in case of any such unwillingness or inability on the part of the deputy representative, a majority of the persons named in that list may designate in writing any such person able and willing (when called upon as aforesaid) so to do. who, shall extract from the said list as many names belonging to candidates selected by him for the purpose, including his own name, as if he has not ben declared elected as President under article 177 of the Constitution as can be so extracted without their number exceeding the number of seats allocated to that list; and the Chief Election Officer shall declare such names, in the order of their extraction as aforesaid, to be the names of the candidates on such list who have been elected.

 

Excerpts from the Representation of the People Act (1974, last amended 1998)