Efforts to have the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) reverse a decision to exclude from the Official List of Electors (OLE) those persons who have not collected their Identification cards have failed.
The more than 25,000 names will be published in the four national newspapers for 21 days beginning this weekend.
Speaking with reporters following yesterday’s statutory meeting of GECOM, Opposition-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj lamented that even though he and his colleagues disagreed with the decision, the Chairman, retired Justice Claudette Singh, “is insisting on publishing the names of the persons who have not collected their identification cards”
He added that during the meeting it became clear “that persons who might have registered as late as last year, or in the last Claims and Objections period before this one, who have not collected their ID cards, [are also] at risk of being removed from the list.”
Government-nominated commissioner Vincent Alexander confirmed this aspect of the decision explaining that the names which will be published will begin with those who registered in 2008 but will “come forward” with the most recent names being those who registered “last year.”
“We did explore the possibility of in fact dating when the person was registered in the publication but it starts from 2008 and comes forward,” he explained.
Gunraj stressed that this decision is bound to see persons disenfranchised but several options are being considered
“This continues to be disconcerting,” he added.
The commission last week said that over 25,000 persons could be excluded from the voters’ list if they do not uplift their national identification cards, some of which have been sitting uncollected since 2008.
Commissioners have explained that in addition to widespread publication of these names, GECOM also intends to send notices directly to the addresses of record for such persons. If a person is able to contact the commission before the expiration of the 21-day period their names will remain on the OLE.
The move has been heavily criticized by several political actors including the opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) who have highlighted that the ruling in the 1997 Esther Perreira elections petition clearly states that there is no correlation between having an ID Card and voting. That decision was handed down by Justice Singh herself in 2001m
Meanwhile, there is still to be a public announcement on how the commission intends to utilize the data generated during the most recent House-to-House exercise.
Gunraj said that the commissioners discussed at length the use of the House-to-House data but made no decisions while Alexander noted that he and his colleagues continue to advocate for all the information to be collated with the most recently dated information being used on the OLE.
“We continue to haggle over the question of the way in which we handle the information from House-to-House. We have three sets of information, the National Register of Registrants, House-to-House data and recent claims and objections information. This information should be collated to provide us with one list which seeks to include every eligible persons in all three exercise using the most recent information as the basis of compilation. Not a matter of exclusion but of treating HtH as if it were a claims or a transfer,” he explained.
The claims aspect of the claims and objections process for the upcoming general and regional elections, concluded on Mon-day with in excess of 5,636 new registrations.
Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward told reporters that as of November 3 the secretariat’s staff had recorded 14,474 transfers, 2,639 corrections and 2,400 identification card replacements during the exercise. They had also facilitated 651 updates of photographs.
Objections will continue until November 11th. So far, 500 objections have been received by registration staff.
While this number is not impressive, Commissioner Gunraj has said that based on the information provided there appears to be an unusual number of objections in Region 9 especially in Annai and Lethem.
In Lethem there have been approximately 200 objections while in Annai there has been more than 100. Together these two place Gunraj noted have provided “approximately 75% of the total number of objections” recorded over the last five weeks.
Meanwhile, Chairman Singh has reiterated her promise to the media to hold a press conference on November 8. Speaking with the press corps yesterday the retired Justice noted that she will answer all questions at that time. Since her appointment on July 29 she has not met the press.
