Dear Editor,
Please permit me to respond to the letter penned by Mr Lionel Peters which was published in the Stabroek News of February 16, under the caption ‘The non-upliftment of voter ID cards needs to be addressed.”
We welcome the interest shown by Mr Peters pertaining to the “non-upliftment of voters ID cards” and we have noted his attempt to school the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) on five “pertinent measures,” which he thinks ought to be put in place as “remedial actions.”
Considering the proposed “remedial actions,” it is clear that Mr Peters is markedly uninformed about the initiatives taken by Gecom to maximize the delivery of ID cards. Accordingly, the following is meant to update Mr Peters and all other stakeholders who may fall within the category of persons who are unaware of Gecom’s much publicized efforts associated with the delivery of ID Cards.
Mr Peters suggested that Gecom should initiate the use of postal vehicles to the critically affected areas accompanied by a published list of names, date and time of distribution of voters ID cards in all sections of the printed press. We do not know what “postal vehicles” are being referred to here. However, we do know that the cost for publishing the names of approximately 54,000 registrants in the print media has been considered and debated. It was found that such an undertaking would be prohibitively expensive without guaranteeing the desired results. With respect to the publication of dates and times of the distribution of ID cards, not only did we publish this via the print media, we gave advance notices through schools, our mobile registration teams, and in the case of hinterland communities through the village Toshaos. Further, in a grass-roots approach, public address systems were used to inform citizens about the distribution of ID cards in Georgetown and its environs and in the coastland areas. All of this was done when we distributed ID cards from temporary registration offices and mobile registration units which were established/used during the recently concluded continuous registration exercise.
Mr Peters also suggested that Gecom should generate a list of outstanding voter ID cards by registration officers in every affected district and ensure that the officers employed in this exercise received fair remuneration. Gecom has compiled individual lists of registrants who have not uplifted their respective ID cards by registration area. These lists have been shared with the parliamentary political parties with the hope that they will motivate their respective constituents to collect their ID cards. If by “registration officers” Mr Peters means those temporary registration staff who were employed to work during the registration exercises commencing with the 2008 house-to-house registration exercise, it must be made known that at the end of those exercises, the employment relationship between Gecom and such staff ceased. Registration exercises are done as projects for which Gecom is allocated funds approved by Parliament.Such funds, which are not infinite, will not allow the commission to retain the services of temporary staff to participate in the distribution of ID cards beyond the conclusion of any such exercise.
In addition to the aforementioned action taken by Gecom to optimize the collection of ID cards, the following was also done:-
* Comprehensive notices associated with the distribution of national ID cards, and including the usefulness of this document were published repeatedly in the print media. In those messages, we have cautioned that Gecom would be moving towards the decommissioning of ‘old’ ID cards as a further stimulant to enthuse registrants to collect their ID cards.
* Gecom wrote in excess of 100 civil society organisations including trade unions, religious organisations, business organizations, etc, requesting that the need for persons to uplift their ID cards be disseminated among their respective membership.
* We have dispatched, by registered mail, individual letters to each registrant who is yet to collect his/her ID card where and when he/she must visit to uplift his/her ID card and the value of having ID cards.
* Secretariat staff emphasized the need for persons to uplift their ID cards via the interactive radio programme ‘Let’s Gaff’ on multiple occasions.
It must be appreciated from the foregoing that Gecom and its secretariat have gone way beyond that which Mr Peters has conjured up where the delivery of ID cards is concerned.
Gecom takes this opportunity to, once again, urge all those registrants who have not as yet uplifted their ID cards to do so without further delay. Gecom is still in possession of approximately 54,000 ID cards. All concerned are again advised that Gecom is moving to decommission all ID cards that were issued prior to the 2008 house-to-house registration exercise.
This would mean that those persons who have not uplifted their ID cards and those with previous ID cards who are not now registered would be without a valid means of identification, unless of course they are in possession of valid passports which are essentially documents that allow citizens to pass ports and are not convenient to carry around as photo identity documents.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Persaud
Public Relations Officer
Gecom
