None of the roughly 19,000 persons who didn’t uplift their ID cards from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will be prevented from voting.
This was confirmed yesterday at the inaugural press conference hosted by GECOM Chair Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh and followed concerns that they would be struck from the final voters’ list if they didn’t collect the identification cards.
GCEOM will from today publish the names of the persons who have not collected their cards, in some cases since 2008.
The list, which is to appear in the four daily newspapers and on the commission’s website, features registrants who will able to vote and are likely to be subject to “greater scrutiny” at the March 2 General and Regional Elections if they don’t collect their cards.
The list is accompanied by an Order signed by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, which directs that all persons whose names are listed need to be verified.
These persons must personally appear at their closest registration office with a Guyana issued birth certificate or certificate of registration of a foreign birth or a valid Guyana Passport as well as any other supporting documents which may be requested by the registration officer before whom they appear.
According to the order, by fulfilling this requirement on or before December 2, 2019 the listed individuals will be ensuring that their name is included on the final list of electors for the next General and Regional elections.
“Failure to satisfy this requirement will result in your name appearing in a special section of the Official List of Electors (OLE) on Elections Day. You must note however, that your registration record in the General Register of Registrants (NRR) shall not be cancelled,” it explains.
It had been previously reported that these persons would not be allowed to vote but Singh yesterday stressed that this is not the case.
Not a witch hunt
Speaking on the decision to publish the names, Singh told the press conference yesterday that GECOM has no intention of disenfranchising anyone.
The publication and the directions attached, she noted, are “just a verification process” which will possibly see those persons placed on a supplemental list if they don’t turn up.
“It is not a witch hunt [and] it will not affect their ability to vote,” she stressed.
The Chair explained that the decision was made in keeping with Section 6 (6A) of the National Registration Act as well as the August 14th ruling of the Chief Justice, which together make clear that the commission can use any means to verify the list.
Section 6 (6A) states that the Elections Commission shall use the Official List of Electors from the 2001 General and Regional Elections as the base to commence continuous registration provided that at any stage the commission may undertake such verification as necessary by a means to be determined by the commission.
She stressed that the controversial House-to-House process was ended since its intention to create a new NRR was found by the Chief Justice to be in contravention of Section 6 (6A) but that this “verification” process broke no laws and did not affect the constitutional rights of Guyanese to vote.
“All we want is for persons to verify their existence…this is provided for by the law,” she indicated, while adding that if not for the December 21st no-confidence vote, house-to-house registration would’ve verified the entire NRR.
“We are in unusual circumstances,” Justice Singh noted.
The order further explains that these persons “came to the attention of the Commission because identification cards issued in their names remain uncollected from GECOM Registration Offices [and] previous efforts to locate [them] at their stated address in the Registration Division failed.” As a consequence, their address is in doubt.
Lowenfield, who was at the press conference, told reporters that 19,502 names had been compiled, with 12,079 of those representing persons who have not collected ID Cards since 2008 and additionally 1,404 were registered during the two cycles of registration held in 2018.
He explained that the list excludes those known to be dead, based on the monthly submission of death certificates from the General Register Office.
No decision
Meanwhile, the commission is still to make a decision on the use of the information collected during the truncated house-to-house process.
Justice Singh in responding to a question indicated that the list of HtH data was published for public scrutiny including possible claims and objections.
“It was posted for the purpose,” she said.
Lowenfield however stressed that no claim can be made on the house-to-house list since it is not a Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).
Asked how the public was supposed to interact with this list, Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward indicated that a “special protocol” had been put in place. It is not clear what this protocol is.
The list includes more than 370,000 transactions of which 179,000 have already been verified, according to the CEO.
He explained that of that number 150,000 were found to already exist in the NRR while 29,000 represented new registrations.
The second tranche of approximately 191,000 names is currently being subject to fingerprint cross- matching and is expected to be returned to Guyana soon.
