The PPP will keep its concerns about the growth of the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) since the 2011 general election by over 75,000 new registrants separate from those of the opposition, General Secretary Clement Rohee said on Monday.
Rohee scoffed at recent remarks made by opposition leader David Granger in New York that the APNU+AFC Coalition will be monitoring the list owing to the large number of new registrations, saying it was a case of “Johnny come lately.”
Rohee said the PPP is on record as being the first party to publicly air concerns about the work being done by the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom). He said that for now if there was anything the party found troubling with the PLE it would raise its concerns with Gecom.
He evaded the question as to whether the party found the addition of 75,000 new registrants concerning given the declining population.
Instead, Rohee criticized Granger for behaving in “an irresponsible manner.” Rohee said the leader of the opposition would have been well aware that the PLE had grown significantly to 567,125 persons, but only spoke about it in New York.
In August of last year, the PPP had urged Gecom to ensure that the PLE was not padded, stating that field operatives were having difficulties finding persons and that up to 18 persons were registered to one Georgetown address.
At a subsequent press conference, Gecom had revealed that its staff were able to locate all the persons and also verify the address issue. Since September and Gecom’s ability to verify the current list the PPP has stopped its criticism of the PLE being padded.
However the party has moved on to criticizing Gecom’s stance on not publicly vetting polling day staff. The commission has repeatedly stated that this will not happen. Gecom also stands by the PLE and has stated that an increase of registrants could stem from a variety of reasons including the increase in birth certificates issued by the General Register Office, GECOM’s campaign to have people registered and more specifically the influence the political parties have had in encouraging new registrants.
The two major parties seem to have switched sides on allegations that the PLE has expanded beyond the norm. Previously the APNU had accused Rohee and the PPP of inventing list issues to “prepare the wicket to cry foul when they lose elections.”
APNU prior to coalescing with the AFC in September stated that the “APNU wants a clean and transparent list of electors. We do not subscribe to the disenfranchisement of any elector regardless of his or her ethnicity. Let it be known also that APNU too has its field staff who are doing their fieldwork. We urge Gecom to do its best and produce a transparent list of electors so that all concerned can be happy.”
