The Opposition-nominated Commissioners on GECOM have raised concerns over the lack of a comprehensive public awareness campaign educating eligible persons on how they can get registered.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Monday commenced its continuous registration cycle in anticipation of Local Government Elections which were deferred from last year.
GECOM said that registration will take place at all of its permanent Registration Offices across Guyana. The process is expected to conclude on May 29, 2022.
The Elections Commission added that the exercise is of crucial importance to those persons who would have been first-time applicants, in the 14 to 18 years age range, and who would have been captured during the 2019 house-to-house registration. It noted that the house to house data registration has been cancelled and therefore eligible persons would have to reapply.
During this registration exercise, any person who will be 14 years and older by the 31st October 2022, and is a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, naturalization, or is a citizen from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more, can apply for registration, providing they were never registered before.
Commissioner Vincent Alexander told Stabroek News that at yesterday’s statutory meeting Chief Election Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud presented a report on the commencement of continuous registration.
“We got the report from the CEO on the exercise that has started and some of us are concerned that the exercise has started and there are no radio or tv ads to inform the public of the exercise. We also raised concerns that all the information pertaining to what has been done is not being shared with the Commission. It seems to be a trend where information is not shared with the Commission,” Alexander stated.
He said that the CEO informed that there were fliers being circulated along with a manual informing of the process but the Commission is not in receipt of those documents. The GECOM commissioner noted that traditionally, copies of those would have been circulated.
Alexander said only after representation was made for television and radio announcements did the CEO give a commitment to have those done.
Bloated list
The opposition has been contending that the voters’ list is bloated and should be addressed before the hosting of another election. That has been the contention since the onset of the March 2020 polls which saw the APNU+AFC coalition being booted from office following an attempt by elections officials and others to subvert the will of the people. At the beginning of February, Alexander and his opposition colleagues Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman had proposed that an internal investigation be launched into the events of the March 2020 general and regional elections.
Additionally, they called for the cleansing of the voters` list noting that it is a persistent demand of major stakeholders and should be addressed.
The trio had further argued that a mechanism to provide for the cleansing of the voters` list has to be integral to any amendment of the electoral laws. They added that the mere fact that there is no mechanism to ensure that a registrant who dies overseas can be removed from the voters` list is sufficient reason to warrant such a mechanism.
Alexander told Stabroek News that yesterday’s meeting was consumed by a discussion on how the Commission can go ahead investigating the “bloated” list of electors. He said that the government side is adamant that legislative changes are required before GECOM can embark on such an exercise.
“There’s those who continue to argue that there’s nothing we can do and that it is a matter for the legislature and there are others who felt that there are things we need to explore. Since we have been given information of people purportedly dead and have since voted and people purportedly overseas who had voted that we should pay some attention to how we could address that matter.
“We did have from the immigration a list, from the registrar of births and deaths a list but we have just parked those lists and we haven’t tried to find any innovative way in which we could, first of all, determine the veracity of the list and secondly see what mechanisms we can put in place to make sure that those things are not repeated,” Alexander related.
During the protracted March 2020 General and Regional Elections, the APNU+AFC Coalition produced a list of names along with death certificates and immigration records of persons who were allegedly dead or out of the country but voted in the elections. Several of the named persons contested the lists saying they were either alive or in the country at the time of the elections.
The Party has been using that claim to push its narrative that the results of the elections were tainted.
At a press conference yesterday, PNCR Chair-man Shurwayne Holder maintained that argument while calling for the examination of the list. He said that the party does not support the continuous registration exercise since it does not address the issue of a bloated list.
“We believe that there should be a review of the 2020 General and regional elections that is what we have been advocating for. Unfortunately, the government side has not agreed with that position. But we believe that for you to remedy any situation at GECOM and to bring credibility to the process, we should first review the events of the 2020 election. There should be an internal review. So that is the first position that we think that GECOM should have taken.
“As I said before, we will put out our proposals…we are working with our lawyers looking at the Representation of the People Act. We’re working with our GECOM personnel. So very shortly we will put out a broad proposal to the public,” Holder maintained.
He added that there are several ways in which GECOM can “cleanse” the list of electors.
Support
Holder said that while the PNCR does not support the ongoing continuous registration process they are still encouraging persons to get registered.
“The process has commenced and so we have to take part in it and to ensure that all eligible persons are registered. We do not agree with the process and we will be putting out more in a subsequent media release but as it is now we will be taking part in it and we would like the public, the media to understand that we do not agree with it. We have our interests and the interests of the Guyanese public at large to protect and so we encourage all eligible persons to register,” Holder said.
Persons desirous of conducting any registration are required to visit the GECOM Registration Office responsible for their area of residence with the relevant source documents which are original birth certificate, valid passport, adoption certificate or naturalization certificate in the case of making an application for a new registration.
For a name change, persons would have to present their original marriage certificate or deed poll with a birth certificate and existing registrants who are desirous of updating their records such as a request to correct or change their names, date of birth, occupation and update their addresses are advised that those transactions would also be facilitated during this exercise.
GECOM said that persons desirous of conducting any registration transaction are advised that they must provide proof of having been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to gain entry to the Registration Offices. In cases where applicants are not vaccinated, a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours would be acceptable, the Commission said.
