There are 280 cases of ‘genuine’ duplicate registration transactions and 84 ‘suspected’ duplicate registration transactions, according to the report on the Fingerprint Cross Matching (FCM) exercise which was undertaken to check whether duplicate registration transactions took place during the 2008 House-to-House Registration exercise, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has stated.
The latter category is classified as ‘suspected’ because the fingerprints were not of the desired quality to facilitate adequate cross matching, GECOM said in a press release. The FCM exercise involved the cross matching of the fingerprints of 430,746 persons who were registered during the 2008 House-to-House Registration exercise, against each other.
The exercise was conducted by Cogent Systems through De La Rue of the United Kingdom and under the auspices of USAID. Cogent Systems is a leading international provider of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) based in California, USA.
Meanwhile, GECOM chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally is quoted in the release as saying that, “The occurrence of this miniscule number of duplicates from the total of 430,746 registration transactions underlined the efficiency and professionalism of the field staff”. He said further that this high level of achievement would have to be credited to the quality of the new ink pads which were procured specifically for facilitating registrants’ fingerprints, the in-depth training which was imparted to the registration staff, and the deep sense of commitment which was displayed at all levels of the registration process, especially by party scrutineers and the staff who were integrally involved in the collection, editing and storage of registration data.
Upon receipt of the report of the FCM exercise, GECOM’s Secretariat immediately commenced internal investigations of the 280 cases of ‘genuine’ duplicates and the 84 ‘suspected’ duplicates, in order to determine why the duplicate transactions occurred.
According to the release, the investigations involved referring to the originals of the respective Application for Registration forms and the relevant source documents which were used in support of the applications for registration.
Statistical analysis
The investigations revealed that of the ‘genuine’ duplicate registrations, 227 of the reported 280 ‘genuine’ cases were confirmed internally as involving the same registrant, while 50 have been confirmed as involving two ‘different individuals’.
And three of the reported 280 duplicate cases could not be confirmed through examination of the respective registration forms and the relevant source documents.
However, these will be further investigated by the respective applicants being summoned to appear in person before GECOM officials to determine the validity of the transactions.
The release stated that 132 of the reported 280 duplicate registrations were from different registration areas and 15 were of different addresses, while 63 of the 280 duplicate registrations were from different registration divisions and 20 were of different biographic data.
Meanwhile, 57 of the reported 84 duplicate registrations have been confirmed internally as involving the same registrant, and 53 of the reported 84 duplicate registrations were found to be from different registration areas. Ten of the 84 reported duplicate registrations were from different registration divisions.
The findings of the statistical analyses were presented to the commission and discussed at a recent GECOM Statutory Meeting with the objective of bringing the new National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB) to finality.
GECOM stated that to ensure that this exercise is completed in the shortest possible time the commission instructed that several actions be taken immediately.
Therefore documented summons, signed by Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo, will be dispatched to persons associated with the duplicate registrations which require further investigations. Efforts will be made to contact the individual directly and the persons will be given two weeks’ notice to present themselves at given locations on given dates and times.
And in cases of duplicate registrations involving different individuals, the summoned persons will be invited to present themselves at the same location on the same date and time. In any case of such persons failing to present themselves after the summons would have been dispatched, a repeat notice will be sent, in addition to the information being published in the print media.
The summons must indicate that the failure of the summoned persons to present themselves as required will result in their registration transactions being cancelled.
The failure by the summoned person(s) associated with a particular case of duplicate registrations to present himself/herself as summoned will result in both transactions being cancelled.
Persons affected as a result of such action(s) will have to reapply for registration during a future Cycle of Continuous Registration or during the mandatory Claims and Objections exercises associated with an election, providing they meet the eligibility requirements. In the case of the duplicate registrations already confirmed, the earlier transaction will be cancelled, but the entire lot of investigations must be treated as a matter of urgency, the release noted.
GECOM said it was convinced that the implementation of those directives will lead to the realization of an unquestionable NRRDB which, subject to being updated through Claims and Objections exercises and future Cycles of Continuous Registration, could be used as the basis for the preparation of Voters’ Lists for future elections.
Upon the finalization of the NRRDB, the commission will produce and distribute new National Identification cards for all registered persons as a crucial part of the preparations for the holding of Local Government Elections later this year.
