The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has published a list of 18,512 registrants whose existence it is seeking to verify owing to their failure to uplift identification cards.
However, for some of those identified, who are migrants, the purpose of the publication remains unclear.
Last Tuesday opposition-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj told the media that these persons would not be included in the Official List of Electors (OLE) but GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Singh has since stressed that they will be allowed to vote.
Singh, however, told her first press conference on Friday that the process was being used only to verify the existence of the listed individual who must come forward and say “I’m alive”.
The order accompanying the publication, which was carried in yesterday’s Stabroek News and Guyana Chronicle newspapers, indicates that those listed must furnish a birth certificate or a certificate of registration of a foreign birth or a valid passport or other requested supporting documents at any GECOM registration office in the area where they live.
According to the order, by fulfilling this requirement on or before December 2nd, 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 National Register of Registrants (NRR) shall not be cancelled,” it explains.
The fact that failure to appear carries no tangible consequence such as a removal from the OLE or the national register has led some to label the process as a useless invasion of privacy.
“I wouldn’t mind if they publicised my name for a reason but if it’s useless why do it?” one listed registrant who has for the last 10 years resided in London asked when contracted by Sunday Stabroek.
Another individual listed has questioned whether she is expected to book a flight to travel to Guyana to uplift the ID card just so she is not put on a “supplemental list” as explained in the order accompanying the list.
The list of 18,512 comprises 313 registrants in Region 1 who have not collected their cards; a total of 548 cards in Region 2; a total of 2,401 in Region 3; a total of 9,446 registrants in Region 4, which is the largest number of persons within any region, with the largest recorded number being at the Coldigen Registration Office with 2,410, while the four offices located in Georgetown together represented 4,424 of the names on the list. More than half of that 4,424 are from South Georgetown.
A total of 1,094 names from Region 5 have been published; 3267 from Region 6; 280 from Region 7; 124 from Region 8; 263 from Region 9; and 776 from Region 10.
