Since the start of the mandatory Claims and Objections (C&O) exercise for upcoming local government polls, almost 10,000 transactions have been recorded.
The majority of the transactions have been new registrations, an official of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) told Stabroek News.
During the C&O exercise, which will conclude on February 8, claims associated with entries on to the Preliminary List of Voters (PLV), including name changes and transfers are being processed. GECOM has also been treating with submissions by registrants who may have been issued National ID cards with defective photographs. Corrective action in such cases is being administered by GECOM’s permanent registration offices, once the requests are found to be justified. GECOM is also preparing to intensify its civic and voter education activity for the local government elections.
GECOM has said that the C&O exercise is being used to produce a Register of Voters (RV), comprising electors who are 18 years or over by March 28, 2010, and are Guyanese by birth, descent, naturalisation, or citizens from Commonwealth countries living in Guyana for one year or more.
Electors who would be eligible to vote at the local government elections are required to check the respective PLVs and make a claim to entry if they are not listed; apply for a transfer, if there has been a change of residential address since he/she was registered during the 2008 House-to-House Registration exercise; apply for a correction(s) if there is/are error(s) on his/her registration record/ID card; apply for a change of name, if there was a name change(s) after registration; and object to the inclusion of the name of any person who is suspected not to have met the eligibility requirements for such inclusion providing that the objector is registered in the same Division/Sub-Division as the person he/she is objecting to.