Dear Editor,
Since before and after the 2008 house-to-house registration hundreds of persons across Region Two have applied to the General Registrar Office (GRO) for birth certificates, especially in the Amerindian communities. They voted in 2006 and would again if they were allowed the old identification cards, but they do not have the required source documents that Gecom is calling for during the Claims and Objections period.
The AFC and the other political parties which are masquerading for power should call on the authorities of the GRO to go into the various regions for the purpose of issuing birth certificates, and not to malinger because it would disenfranchise the thousands of Guyanese who want to vote for the party of their choice.
The AFC and APNU, which are the same wine in new bottles, know very well that Gecom has a duty to ensure that those persons who voted in previous elections and who have attained the voting age should put systems in place so that their names can be put on the Preliminary Voters List.
It is shocking to hear AFC leader Mr Raphael Trotman saying that all contesting parties should be placed on a level playing field by the commission, when there would be no perfect playing field for the thousands of voters who voted in previous elections and now will not be allowed to vote in this one. When they are deprived of their constitutional right – is that a level playing field?
Yours faithfully,
Pooran Persaud
