The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has been meeting with political parties on preparations for this year’s general and regional elections.
In a statement, GECOM said it has held meetings with the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), the Justice For All Party (JFAP) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), in that order. Additionally, it also met with a team of representatives led by Peter Ramsaroop from the Guyana People’s Partnership (GPP).
GECOM Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally had written letters to the parties in parliament, informing that the body was engaged with preparations for the conduct of this year’s elections and inviting them to work with it in a consultative approach towards the holding of the polls in compliance with international best practice. It said this was done on the basis that such an approach would bolster transparency with respect to the work of the Commission and guarantee that periods prior to, during and after the elections would find the county in a state of peace and tranquillity.
According to GECOM, an area of concern raised by all of the parties was the large number of persons who could not apply for registration, either because they were not in possession of their birth certificates or because their births were never registered. The parties were also concerned about the number of uncollected ID Cards. “Dr. Surujbally informed the parties that GECOM is aware that there are thousands of people who would be of voting age, but who could not apply for registration because they were/are not in possession of birth certificates, since their births were never registered,” GECOM said. It further noted that it consequently raised this matter at several levels, including the Minister of Home Affairs and with the Registrar General. Further, it said it had emphasised the need for applications for birth certificates be treated with more alacrity by the General Register Office. “The objective behind this thrust was to stimulate suitable action with the result being the registration of the births of the concerned persons so that they could be issued birth certificates to be used to apply for registration,” it added.
GECOM said Dr. Surujbally had pointed out that all of the parliamentary political parties had agreed that only original birth certificates and valid passports, along with supporting documents like marriage certificates and deed polls would be accepted as source documents for registration. It noted that the objective of this agreement was to ensure that only persons who met the eligibility criteria would be registered. The parties agreed that baptismal certificates, expired passports, photocopies of relevant documents or letters from priests, elders, head masters, village captains/toshaos and Justices of the Peace or existing ID Cards would not be acceptable as source documents for registration.
During the meeting with representatives of the JFAP, a specific request was made by the party to be provided with the criteria for qualifying to contest the 2011 elections. They were given the assurance by Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo, who was present at the meeting, that all pertinent information should be sought of him and that he would respond accordingly in a timely manner. Boodoo also pointed out that GECOM would soon be organising consecutive interactive sessions with all of the known political parties to update/advise them on the requirements for contesting the elections.
During the meeting with the GPP, Ramsaroop, emphasised the party’s support for the work of GECOM and informed that his intention in requesting the meeting was to present significant features of the party, including its operating concept, its symbol, etc, to Commission. Ramsaroop, GECOM said, was unequivocal about the GPP’s intentions to contest the elections.
Meanwhile, during all of the meetings Surujbally pointed out that GECOM was still in possession of over 50,000 ID Cards produced from the 2008 House-to-House Registration Exercise and the Claims and Objections Exercise, which was done in preparation for Local Government Elections in 2010. He noted the urgency for all of the political and civil stakeholders to emphasise the need for registrants who have not as yet collected their ID Cards to do so without any further delay. “[He] made it abundantly clear during the meetings that GECOM is moving to decommission all ID cards that were issued prior to the 2008 House-to-House Registration exercise,” GECOM said.
The JFAP representatives who met with GECOM were Ursulla Ramdayal and Geoffrey Sankies; the AFC representatives were party leader Raphael Trotman and David Patterson, and Martin Cheong; while Ramsaroop was accompanied by Jane Stuart, Vaughn Phillips and Arnold Sukhraj.
