Three weeks from today, March 2nd, voters will head to polling stations countrywide to cast ballots in what will easily be the most hotly contested General and Regional Elections in decades. Prior to that date, on February 21st, a total of 10,226 members of the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Prison Service are scheduled to vote at 62 polling stations across the country. This, as has been the case in previous elections, serves as a useful test of preparations for general voting day.
Only persons whose names appear on the Official List of Electors (OLE) will be allowed to vote. All eligible members of the public who were interested in casting a ballot would have had numerous opportunities in the last two years to apply for entry to the list if they were not already on the National Register of Registrants which is the master list from which the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) is drawn.
An important step remains for all voters. They must check the OLE to ensure that their addresses are current as this will determine which polling station they will be voting at. On February 1st, the OLE went live on the Guyana Elections Commission’s website (https://www.gecom.org.gy/home/ole) and eligible voters should utilise this facility or have someone do it on their behalf.
Checking to see whether their addresses are correct has become particularly important this year as the elections secretariat had been processing roughly 91,000 change-of-address requests that were received during the house-to-house registration exercise. On January 25th this year, when the Revised List of Electors (RLE) expired, 88,876 changes had been recorded, leaving approximately 2,124 registrants who had requested a transfer without same. Those 2,124 registrants will have to vote at the polling stations assigned to their old addresses.
It also appears to be the case that addresses were not changed for some persons who had been assured by elections staff that the adjustment had been made. This is why all eligible voters should recheck the list.
Yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek reported on one case which would be the worst nightmare for any voter.
Miss Laurel Sutherland, who attempted to transfer from Region 9 to Region 3, told this newspaper that approximately a year ago she along with a brother and sister moved to Cornelia Ida and together attempted to transfer their registration records during the curtailed house-to-house registration exercise.
“We were all registered on the same day at home by the same persons,” she noted.
When the revised list of electors was published in January this year, all three Sutherlands found that their registration had not been changed and following the advice of GECOM they visited the Registration Office at Pouderoyen.
“They told us all we needed to give to them was our names and they would change it so we gave them our names,” she said.
On February 1st, when the list went live, the Sutherlands once again checked to ensure that their registration records were accurate. While her siblings found good news, Laurel Sutherland didn’t so she went back to Pouderoyen.
“They said they couldn’t find me in the database and that it was probably because my house-to-house registration had not been completed but I have the pink slip, the same as everyone else,” she said.
Sutherland, who works in Georgetown, lamented the fact that even if she were to contemplate travelling back to the Rupununi to vote, it is an impossible proposition. “The trip takes two days each way and it is expensive,” she shared.
Other persons similarly affected have been expressing their concern on Facebook. Ms Nalini Roopnarine lamented that while she and her husband changed their addresses at the same time, only his registration record was updated, while Ms Patricia McAllister noted that her registration was updated while her daughters were not.
Ms Theresa Chandan noted that she was the only member of her household with an accurate registration record, although the others had visited GECOM with the requested slips as they were advised to do.
These cases would point to careless work by the elections secretariat in updating addresses and it behoves the Chief Election Officer Mr Keith Lowenfield to determine how many of these have occurred and to ensure that the voters are notified.
The GECOM Chair, Justice Singh and the six commissioners should also take a keen and urgent interest in this matter as no voter should be disenfranchised as a result of an error by the elections secretariat. In the period leading up to February 21st and March 2nd GECOM should do its utmost to ensure that all eligible voters are aware of the address entered for them and can easily locate their polling station.
