– exercise on schedule
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday reported that it has already registered 39% of eligible persons and despite setbacks owing to inclement weather and the tragic occurrences at Bartica and Lusignan the commission remains convinced that the exercise would be completed as scheduled.
Last week the government had raised concerns about the commission’s plans to produce new voter identification cards for all eligible persons, saying that it was re-examining factors impacting the time this would involve.
While the government supports the production of multi-use identification cards in time for the next general and regional elections, Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon had told the media last week that the identification cards which were used in the previous elections ought to suffice.
He noted that there would be fewer cards for GECOM to produce since it would only have to cater for those who did not register before the last elections and those who would have attained the age of eligibility.
Luncheon said that Cabinet had examined the high costs related to the demands by some for another new ID card, disputes about payment for scrutineers and accusations about the seemingly spendthrift behaviour of the commission and its secretariat, among other issues related to the ongoing registration exercise.
GECOM’s press statement yesterday did not address the issue of the production of ID cards but said it was convinced that with the current pace, the exercise would be completed by July 4, 2008.
The release said also that GECOM’s transaction report for the week ending March 7, 2008 showed that 227,851 transactions had been completed for the period January 1-March 7, 2008, that is in 62 days.
This figure, the statement said, represents 39% of the estimated total of 591,297 persons who would be 14 years or older by June 30, 2008, under this house-to-house registration which is earmarked to be completed in 180 days.
The completed transactions represent the total number of persons who have met the eligibility criteria, and for whom Application for Registration Forms have been filled out by registration teams working in all of the 23 registration areas across Guyana, the statement added.
The GECOM Public Relations Officer in the statement said that while there was a steady climb in the weekly number of completed transactions since the commencement of the exercise on January 7, 2008, it must be noted that the national state of tension resulting from the killings at Lusignan and Bartica resulted in a significant dip in the number of registration transactions conducted during the 7th week.
In developing its work plan for house-to-house registration, GECOM’s Secretariat had estimated the number of persons to be registered by upping the number of persons included on the 2006 Official List of Electors (OLE) by 20% to capture persons 14 years old or over who would have never been registered.
Meanwhile the commission has also acknowledged the approval of $300 million by the government for the payment of scrutineers as a move which guarantees that house-to-house registration will continue to be carried out under the watchful eyes of persons appointed as scrutineers.
In the statement too, GECOM assured all political parties and other stakeholders that it remained committed to working towards the successful and satisfactory completion of the house-to-house registration exercise.
The statement stressed also that the cooperation of all political parties, civic and business organizations and all other stakeholders will contribute significantly to the achievement of this primary objective.
