The parliamentary opposition parties have decided to meet urgently with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to clarify matters related to the soon to begin house-to-house registration exercise.
In a statement released yesterday, the parties said last Thursday they met GECOM’s opposition commissioners to be briefed on the status of preparations for the exercise and it was at that forum that they decided they needed an urgent meeting with GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally and commissioners.
The position with respect to the issuing of new national identification cards to all persons to be included on the new National Registrants Registrar (NRR) and the decommissioning of all existing national ID cards as well as a likely commencement date for the exercise were among the matters discussed, the statement said.
This newspaper had learnt that funding in the sum of $235.3 million may be sought to enable photographs of 600,000 registrants to be taken for the production of new identification cards during the house-to-house registration.
GECOM projected that the brand new ID cards, using colour with new security features could be used until the 2016 elections and they would also be less costly.
Stabroek News had learnt that President Bharrat Jagdeo had expressed concern about the cost involved in the production of the new ID cards, but this was never an issue at the level of the GECOM Secretariat or for the commissioners since it would be the last undertaking before the municipal and local government elections and the 2011 general and regional elections.
This newspaper, however, learnt by way of a document produced by GECOM on the ‘Justification for the production of new National Identification Cards’ that though the agreement on the preparation of a new NRR did not specifically mention the production of new ID cards the production of the new ID cards was inherent in the signed document. Nevertheless, no decision has as yet been taken as to whether government would undertake the task of sourcing funds for such an undertaking which the commission feels is necessary.
GECOM said in its justification that the house-to-house registration exercise would yield new individual numbers associated with each registrant which would not correspond with those in the present database.
To have two sets of numbers associated with the same person would lead to chaos, it said, and the thought of such a possibility was currently creating great consternation and a sense of horror in the Information Technology Division of GECOM.
GECOM feels that since the registration exercise was going to be the most definitive undertaking, it makes sense not only to do everything correctly but to ensure that all components have a fresh and simultaneous beginning. “One should not give potential obfuscators a chance to ply their trade.”
GECOM feels that were it to produce ID cards at some later date, for example 2009 or 2010, it would mean photographing registrants’ faces all over again, with the concomitant costs, which would have increased by 2009 or 2010.
Meanwhile, as a result of the discussions among the opposition parties and their elected commissioners, the parties have decided that they would seek to have an early meeting with sections of the donor community to apprise them of their concerns about the current arrangements for the conduct of the house-to-house registration exercise.
The meeting also reaffirmed the parties’ position that the reform of the local government system as recommended by the joint task force should be fully implemented prior to the holding of local government elections.
The reform includes the local government electoral system, the institution of the new system for fiscal transfers, the establishment of the local government commission and the conduct of a comprehensive public education programme.
According to the statement, the parties have planned to seek assurance that the joint task force on local government reform is responsible for overseeing the drafting of the new local government act to ensure that its provisions accurately reflect their recommendations.
The parties said they also noted with deep concern the growing examples of the government’s bad faith with respect to its commitments in the agreement signed by the parties on June 14 in the presence of the representatives of the donor community.
The parliamentary opposition parties were represented at the meeting by PNCR-1G Leader Robert Corbin, AFC Leader Raphael Trotman, Paul Hardy of GAP-ROAR and Winston Murray, Oscar Clarke, Amna Ally, Lance Carberry and Basil Williams of the PNCR-1G.
AFC member of the joint task force on local government reform David Patterson was also present at the meeting.
