The Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) says it has covered 55% of the projected registrants to be captured under the House-to-House registration exercise even though it continues to grapple with the problem of some persons not having important source documents.
The commission anticipates that it would be treating with about 591,293 potential registrants and has established 761 teams countrywide to register eligible persons. Up to Monday Gecom said it had registered 323,225 persons since the start of the exercise on January 7. At a press conference held yesterday to bring the media up to date on the progress of the exercise acting Deputy Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield told reporters that in some communities, particularly hinterland areas, many eligible registrants do not possess birth certificates and other supporting documents. According to Lowenfield when registration teams set out many times they encounter persons who do not have the necessary documents.
Despite this, the teams have been doing well, Lowenfield said, giving assurances that once those persons obtain their documents they would be registered. He pointed to areas like Mabaruma and Moruca which have recorded 25% and 41% registration success levels respectively but where many persons have not had source documents. Lowenfield explained that those concerns had led the Commission to host consultations with Human Services and Amerindian Affairs ministers Priya Manickchand and Carolyn Rodrigues as well as Registrar General Greta McDonald.
Gecom is using original birth certificates as their main source document and other supporting documents like passports are requested along with deed polls and marriage certificates if persons request registration in a name other than the one stated on their birth certificate. Gecom said it had been given assurances that the ministries and general register office were working assiduously toward registering the births of all persons who are not registered. Further, Gecom was told that there are simple procedures in place for persons to apply for birth certificates. The Commission said too it was guaranteed that such applications would be speedily processed.
Attitude
Lowenfield said teams have remained on the ground in many areas where persons have not been registered because they did not possess source documents. Upon receipt of their documents those persons will be registered. In several parts of Georgetown Gecom said there is a perception that since the process has been extended until July, persons have asked that registration teams make contact with them at a later date. “In Georgetown we are faced with the attitude … people want to get registered closer to the deadline,” he said.
Asked later about challenges faced by registration teams when they go into the field, Lowenfield said from a security standpoint the teams have remained confident and the small conflicts have been settled easily. The teams have been able to get their work done, he said. Commenting on queries from reporters about instances where cameras belonging to registration teams were stolen, Lowenfield acknowledged that there were a few instances in this regard but when police intervention was required the lawmen are allowed to do their work.
Meanwhile, Gecom Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally revisited the issue of the unacceptability of the existing National Identification (ID) card as a source document for registration. He recalled an acknowledgment by Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon that “the accuracy of the electoral roll, from which the national register of registrants flowed, has been a historical problem in Guyanese elections and the main issue in arguments across the political divide.” He said the decision not to accept an existing national ID card as a source document in the current registration exercise was taken as a matter of policy.
Further, the Commission’s decision takes into consideration that during previous registration exercises, some persons had been registered on the basis of providing baptismal certificates, letters from priests and elders, village captains and justices of peace. “In cognizance of the concerns raised about the purity of the database used for the production of the 2006 Official List of Electors, and recognising the need to guarantee the integrity of the new database to be created from this house to house registration exercise, Gecom in its collective wisdom took the decision not to accept existing ID cards among other specified documentation, as base documents for registration,” a statement issued after yesterday’s press conference said.
Finance
Meanwhile, Surujbally said he does not foresee a problem with finances for the Commission. Surujbally said too that international partners have also come on board and have conducted a needs assessment which the commission had passed. “We passed this and this was the springboard for them to release monies to us …. Only yesterday monies were put into our communal coffers for our immediate needs,” he said.
As regard the production of new ID cards, Surujbally said that the Commission has adequate financial resources to undertake this exercise. It has decided that as a legal sequel to the documentation of the particulars of applicants for registration, new national ID cards must be produced for all persons registered under this house-to-house registration exercise. The cards, Gecom said, will carry new and improved security features as well as new identification numbers and the cards currently in use will have to be decommissioned at a later date.
