Thousands of enumerators took to the streets yesterday as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) began a contentious house-to-house registration exercise across the country, prompting Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to direct his party’s supporters against participating as he announced plans to seek an injunction to stop it.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward told Sunday Stabroek that a total of 1,056 teams of two were deployed from 261 cluster offices in various districts around the country and they received positive responses from the public.
“We had some reports of purported supporters of the opposition indicating to persons that they should not register. That’s one of the major challenges we had today but the teams were still able to begin the process,” Ward told Sunday Stabroek as she explained that these issues appeared to be localised in certain areas of the country, with most complaints being received from communities in Region Six. (Region Six is an opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) stronghold and the party has been opposed to a national house-to-house registration exercise as it fears it will delay the holding of elections, which were due since March.)
As early as 10 am, a crowd of over 15 GECOM workers, wearing t-shirts with ‘National House to House Registration” printed on the back, were seen receiving a briefing in First Street, Alexander Village, before they embarked on visits to residents’ homes.
GECOM staff were also noticed in West, East and South Ruimveldt as well as on the West Bank and West Coast of Demerara.
When Sunday Stabroek visited the West Coast, GECOM enumerators were seen in various villages communicating with residents. One worker related to this publication that persons had been cooperating with them. However, this newspaper was told that in one of the villages, a member of the PPP refused to be registered.
Sunday Stabroek also visited a few cluster offices in Georgetown and received similar reports. One enumerator said that while many of those they visited were not at home, the process was mostly smooth with those who were present. “So far, so good but it’s only day one, so…,” she said.
At another cluster office, the Assistant Registration Officer (ARO) indicated that she had deployed seven teams and only one reported an issue. “One family refused to be registered,” she said, before adding that she didn’t think the matter was serious since she and another enumerators were personally familiar with the family and would approach them again after things had a chance to settle. “It’s day one. We’ll give them time,” she stressed.
‘Not cooperating’
Meanwhile, Jagdeo directed all supporters of his party not to participate in the activity “over this weekend.”
“We in the party have decided that over this weekend, we will not be cooperating with the activity since on Monday we will go to the courts to seek an injunction against this activity, which is done in contravention of the order of the CCJ [Caribbean Court of Justice]. We will not be cooperating over this weekend,” he said in a video statement that was posted on the PPP’s Facebook page.
Promising to give further guidance on Monday, Jagdeo stressed that his party will try to stop house-to-house registration through every means possible, including international pressure and the courts, which have an obligation to uphold the orders of the CCJ.
He noted that he had met with members of the diplomatic community on Friday and complained that his party has still not been formally informed that it needed to provide scrutineers, in keeping with the Registration Act.
According to Ward, this is not quite accurate as both the opposition and governing coalition were informed by the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield on May 2nd that a list of scrutineers was required.
She acknowledged that GECOM has had “challenges with scrutineers,” particularly from the opposition party, which did not respond to the May 2 request.
Ward explained that currently all GECOM registration offices have permanent scrutineers, while the APNU+AFC in response to a request from the CEO provided scrutineers though she did not have the number at hand.
Legal order
Asked why the Commission has chosen to proceed with house-to-house registration despite the widespread objection and advice from its own in-house counsel, Excellence Dazzell, that the action could be perceived as being in contempt of court, Ward stressed that GECOM was operationalising a legal order.
“While the Legal Officer did indicate that because of the time house-to-house is likely to take, if the exercise goes over the timeline for election then GECOM could find itself in contempt of court, she also indicated that Order 25 was a legal and valid order,” Ward said.
Order 25 of 2019, also known as the National Registration (Residents) Order 2019, was signed by former GECOM Chairman James Patterson on June 11th, a week before the June 18th ruling of the CCJ, which deemed his appointment unconstitutional.
The Order states that persons to whom it applies shall, in accordance with Section 6 of the National Registration Act, be registered under the process of house-to-house registration with reference to October 31, 2019 and the registration shall begin on July 20, 2019 and end on October 20, 2019.
Ward explained that the legal advice received by the GECOM Secretariat is that in light of the judgment, every act done by Patterson after June 18th was not a valid act but since the Order was signed before that date, it is valid.
House-to-house registration is expected to continue today, with more teams expected to be added to ensure the full deployment of 1,800 teams across the country.
Ward reiterated that in Guyana registration is not optional and refusal to comply could attract penalties. (Additional reporting by Dhanash Ramroop)
