The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)  will be posting up Divisional/Sub-Divisional Lists of Registrants  at prominent  places in all electoral Divisions/Sub-Divisions and at GECOM Offices/Sub-Offices in the respective Registration/Electoral Divisions for public scrutiny, and a Claims and Objections (C&O) exercise will be conducted.

Registered persons will be required to check the lists to determine the accuracy of their respective registration data as published, GECOM said in a press release.

Meanwhile, GECOM  is  currently finalizing the National Register of Registrants  to be used as the basis for the conduct of a C&O  exercise as a prerequisite for the holding of Local Government Elections  likely to be held this year.

And during the  C&O, persons who meet the eligibility  criteria  for registration would get the opportunity to apply for registration and be issued their respective  National  Identification Cards.  It is essential to note that only persons  who will be 18 years and over by a specified date will be registered  during the C&O period, the release stated.

Anyone who will be 18 years or older by a date to be specified by GECOM and is a Guyanese  citizen by birth, descent, naturalization, or is a citizen from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more can register during the ongoing C&O exercise and be issued a National Identification Card thereafter.

In order to be able to register,  persons must be in possession of the following source documents   as may be necessary:  original birth certificate or a valid Guyana passport;  original marriage certificate  (and original birth certificate)  in the case of a name change by marriage, but  married women in possession of valid Guyana passports with their husbands’ surnames do not need to provide marriage certificates; and   original deed poll and original birth certificate  in the case of a name change by Deed Poll.

GECOM said it  is aware that many eligible persons could not be registered during the 2008 House-to-House Registration exercise because they were not in possession of the required source documents, e.g. Birth Certificates, Passports and Marriage Certificates, etc.   However, many such  persons who would by now have taken possession of their respective source documents could now be registered during the C&O exercise.

The C&O exercise will be conducted at offices suitably located in all of the ten administrative regions in Guyana, including the GECOM permanent area offices. Any person who meets the eligibility criteria will be required to visit the GECOM office responsible for his/her area of residence with the respective source documents  to  apply for registration.

According to the release, all persons who would be eligible for registration during the C&O but are not in possession of the relevant supporting documents are strongly urged to take immediate steps to acquire these documents in order to facilitate their respective registration during this exercise.

The C&O exercise would provide opportunities for persons to conduct  registration transactions such as making a claim to entry on the Official  List of Electors (OLE)  if they will be eligible to vote at the upcoming Local Government Elections and  their names are not on the list; applying  for a transfer if they have changed their addresses; applying for a correction if they have changed their names, or if there is incorrect information on the list or on their National ID cards; and  raising objection  to the inclusion of the name of any person who is suspected  of not  meeting  the eligibility requirements for such inclusion.

GECOM also stated  that the duration of the C&O exercise will be repeatedly published in the local media as a guide for eligible persons desirous of applying  for registration or conducting any of the other transactions stated earlier.

Since this is a matter of the utmost importance, GECOM said it is expecting the relevant stakeholders, specifically the various political parties, to urge their constituents to spare no effort to acquire their respective source documents to become registered during the C&O  exercise.

Further GECOM is appealing to the political parties to assist their constituents who might find some difficulty in obtaining a Deed Poll by convincing the lawyers and Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Oaths affiliated to the respective parties to prepare and lodge the required instruments of name change (Deed Polls) through Notaries Public at the Deeds Registry.