The current list of proposed polling stations inclusive of the 166 private residences is with the political parties for overview Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield has said, while noting that legally this information is published 20 days prior to the election.
He said that while the lists were with the political parties for review it was ultimately the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) that would determine if the proposed locations would remain the fixed sites. He said that considering the past issues with private residences being utilized the list was provided to the political parties for vetting and to keep all and sundry content.
Lowenfield said parties had until nomination day, April 7, 2015, to bring any concerns with the proposed location to the attention of Gecom. He said the commission was aware there may be concerns that the owners of the private residences may have political affiliations and as a result the parties would be able to bring this to the attention of the commission.
He did emphasise that it was Gecom that made the final decision, noting that the commission had its own vetting process.
Asked about the possibility of the early publication of the location of polling stations, Lowenfield said the commission would elect to follow the legal time frame.
There are currently 166 proposed private residences listed among the 2,369 polling stations.
At a ‘Let’s Talk’ forum organized by the non-governmental organisation Blue CAPS, Lowenfield had noted that these numbers were not concrete.
Lowenfield said that as far as using schools as places of polling was concerned, there has been no problem and the commission has been in touch with the Ministry of Education.
Among the concerns raised at the forum was the number of persons on the voters’ list – 570,786 – and the officials again acknowledged that among them are persons who would have died or migrated but there is a difficulty in removing the names because official data from entities such the General Register Office had not been supplied.
There has been no official response from the General Register Office, which falls under the purview of the Home Affairs Ministry, as to how to assist Gecom in removing dead persons from the list. From January 2008 to April 2014 the names of over 12,000 deceased persons had been removed from the Preliminary List of Electors. Since 2011 the PLE has grown by over 75,000 to approximately 567,125 compared to 492,000 in 2011. Chairman of the Commission Dr Steve Surujbally noted that it was not desirable for deceased persons to remain on the list or persons who had previously verified their addresses but had since left the jurisdiction. He said that removing names from the list of electors is difficult, citing restrictions in the laws. He restated that the commission will be advocating for additional mechanisms to be put in place to allow for this in the future.
