The PNCR, the largest party in the governing APNU+AFC coalition, yesterday reiterated that house-to-house registration is crucial for credible elections and emphasised that there will be no compromise on this issue.
Party Chairperson Volda Lawrence told reporters at the party’s Congress Place headquarters that the David Granger-led coalition will return to government once elections are held with a new list.
Invoking the President’s address to the nation following the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that a no-confidence motion against the government was valid, which means that elections would have to be held, Lawrence stressed that the polls “cannot proceed” on the now expired voters’ list as “it is outdated and corrupted.”
“It is true that the names of dead people are on the list. It is true that the names of missing or non-existent people are on the list. It is true that the list does not have the names of thousands of young people who recently became 18,” the politician, who is also the Minister of Public Health, stressed.
Further, she said that the party is aware that almost 200,000 persons on the list could not be accounted for and within the possession of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are a significant number of ID cards for persons whom they could not find.
“That says to you and to us that the list is flawed and it is corrupted and as a party, we believe that once this list is clean, we have a very good chance of having not just one seat over the opposition, but that the number of our seats will increase and so we are calling for the removal of those names that are on the list and you can’t find the persons. We are calling for the removal of those who are now deceased, those who would have died at home and those who would have died abroad,” she stressed.
Asked if the argument made could be extended to state that government is unlikely to return if the current list is used, Lawrence said that if the list had been cleansed prior to 2015, the coalition would have been in a better position in the National Assembly “so that [they] could have staved off any Charrandass attack.”
Former government parliamentarian Charrandass Persaud voted in support of a December 21 PPP-sponsored no-confidence motion against the APNU+AFC government which ensured its passage. Since then political instability has ensued and the matter reached all the way to the CCJ which ruled that the motion was validly passed.
Lawrence, also questioned why the opposition PPP/C, the Private Sector Commission and other sections of civil society are supporting a flawed list.
“It was under Bharrat Jagdeo’s presidency that the National Registration Act was amended by the National Registration (Amendment) Act 2007 to ensure house-to-house registration,” Lawrence reminded.
That amendment changed the principal Act and inserted the following: “(a) every registration officer shall, either by himself or an authorized officer, by house to house visits within the registration division or sub-division assigned to him, obtain as far as practicable the application for registration of every person, who is on the appointed date of the age of fourteen years or above for the purpose of ascertaining every person qualified for registration to have his name included in the National Register of Registrants.”
It further states that, “(1) The Commissioner shall establish a central register which shall consist of a computerized database of the information of the originals of the registration records and the originals of all persons registered under the house to house registration process mentioned in section 6, and the data so generated shall be utilized to effect the continuous registration process.”
The opposition subsequently responded to Lawrence’s statements, calling them falsehoods that are being peddled to the Guyanese people.
Reiterating its call for a claims and objections process to be used instead of a national house-to-house registration process to remove the names of any dead registrants and to add the names of newly-qualified electors, the PPP said in a statement that Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield in February had indicated that it was an option to update the next list.
“We can move toward the conduct, as I said yesterday, of a claims and objections exercise, of a duration to be specified by the Commission, so that we can arrive at a list…claims allow for the youthful to be added and Objections for the deceased to be removed based on the submission made by the GRO [Guyana Register Office]. Other deaths not reported to GRO, when we are in the field, people will come to us and say Jagmohan next door died and we want his name to be removed. It is a limited way to cleanse the list,” he had said then.
The PPP emphasised that the PNCR’s track record with elections that are not fair or credible is known internationally and called the push for a national house-to-house registration exercise a ploy to delay constitutionally due general and regional elections. It said, “A claims and objections exercise can address all of the issues that are being raised as ‘justifications’ for new national house-to house registration, since it will: Allow any eligible Guyanese who has reached the age of 18-years-old to be registered if their name is not on the Voters’ List; Allow any eligible Guyanese to get a transfer from one voting district to another, in the event that they changed their place of residence; Allow any eligible Guyanese to do a name change; Allow for the removal of a dead person from the Voters’ List; and Allow for objections to be made to the name of someone not eligible to be on the Voters’ List.”
The party further said the constitution must be respected and elections must be held within the three-month timeframe stipulated by Article 106 (7) of the Constitution. “The APNU+AFC Coalition Government must stop engaging in delay tactics and call elections now,” it stressed.
