The Guyana Elections Commission has processed more than 2,000 new registrations over the one week that the Claims and Objections process has been ongoing.
This is according to Commissioner Sase Gunraj who told reporters yesterday that 2,127 claims for inclusion on the List of Electors and two objections have so far been processed by Registration Officers.
Claims and Objections is currently being conducted at all GECOM Registration Offices countrywide and will conclude on 11th November, 2019.
Persons have until 4th November, 2019 to make a claim to be included on the list if they are a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, naturalization or registration, 18 years or older or will attain the age of eighteen by 31st December, 2019. A citizen of a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for a period of no less than one year preceding 31st December, 2019 can also be registered to be on the list.
The Commission also urges persons who require changes or corrections to their particulars and transfers in relation to their addresses to do so during this period.
Objections against the inclusion of names on the PLE can be tendered to the Registration Officer of the Registration Area from until 11th November, 2019.
Gunraj also indicated that the secretariat has provided a new deadline of October 15 for the encoding of data collected during the abridged House to House (HtH) registration process. The exercise which ended on August 31 is said to have registered some 370,822 persons.
Those persons who were registered in the HtH exercise have been advised not to make a claim to be registered in the current exercise.
Commissioners had previously told the media that about 170,000 of these entries had been computerised and dispatched for fingerprint cross matching and verification. Following this process at least some of that information will be displayed for public scrutiny.
“There was a decision of [GECOM Chairperson Claudette Singh] that data from house-to-house, after encoding, will be put up for public scrutiny,” opposition-nominated Commissioner Bibi Shadick told reporters last Friday.
She later explained to Stabroek News that commissioners have been promised a comprehensive report once the encoding process is completed.
This report will also indicate whether all of the more than 370,000 entries will be put up for public scrutiny or whether only the data of the new registrants will be displayed. Government-nominated Com-missioner Charles Corbin added that data point comparisons between the National Register of Registrants (NRR) and the house-to-house data will mean that only the most recent information for each person will make it onto the List of Electors.
If the secretariat is able to reach the October 15 deadline on encoding they will have one week to cross match the more than 200,000 remaining entries so that they can be displayed for scrutiny over the 21 days Corbin has promised.
“It will be for 21 days. We are sure that all of the data will be available 21 days before the end of the processing period. It will be the house-to-house data that will be displayed for public review,” he has said.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Vincent Alexander indicated yesterday that the Administration Committee of the commission has been resurrected to address the myriad vacancies which exist.
The committee which consists of Bibi Shadick, Robeson Benn, Vincent Alexander and Desmond Trotman will begin work to employ a Logistics Manager, Assistant Chief Election Officer, Research Officer and a Voter Education Officer.
“Those vacancies have been affecting the capacity of the secretariat to do its work and the admin committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesdays so we can advance the process of filling those vacancies,” Alexander said.
