Last week’s article provoked quite a reaction from two bloggers who feature every day in the Stabroek News. One blogger, apparently in a hostile mood, asked me to come straight and say, yes or no, whether we should go into general or local government elections with the present voters’ list. The second blogger argued that the General Register Office (GRO) proved that GECOM was lying about dead people on the list and that the latter should explain the almost 80,000 new names on the list when the recent census shows the population declining. He further asserted that the PPP/C and its Commissioners could only know that the list is faulty after GECOM rolled it out for political parties’ scrutineers. He then engaged in a personal attack of me.
The first blogger reacted by stating that the Commissioners are just office holders and that the public servants involved are responsible for the many errors. He then directed his anger at me. A third blogger, who was far more respectful and courteous, wanted me to say how those Canadian cities mentioned in my article compile their voters’ lists and who is in control of the elections. He further asked that I shed some light about robocalls.
In Toronto, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation compiles the voters’ list. Since half of Toronto dwellers live in rented premises, a property owner is required to