One month after it embarked on the claims and objections period, in preparation for the overdue Local Government Elections (LGE), the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has now reported that just 17 objects have been made to entrants on the preliminary voters’ list so far.
The information has been released by Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward following questions from the Stabroek News.
This publication was informed that as of 21, September 2022, some 3,016 new registrations were recorded and 1,858 transfers. However, just 17 objections have been recorded thus far.
While the claims period ended on Wednesday, the objections process will come to an end on Sunday.
Initially, GECOM had said that the claims period would expire on September 11, 2022, but the opposition APNU+AFC requested an extension of that date, citing a poor public information campaign. This led to the Commission extending the process by seven days.
The number of objections has been closely watched after consistent claims by the APNU+AFC coalition about the list being padded with the names of dead and migrated persons. There has been the expectation that hundreds of objections would be made by coalition scrutineers as a result.
During the period, objections against the inclusion of names in the preliminary list can be tendered to the Registration Officer of the Registration Area. Objection(s) can be submitted by an Elector who is listed in the same Division list / Sub Division list in which the person being objected to is listed. Objections can also be made by approved Scrutineers of Political Parties provided that any such Scrutineer has monitoring responsibilities for the Division / Sub Division in which the person being objected to is listed.
The relevant document(s), such as an original Death Certificate, must be presented at the time of the hearing to support the basis upon which the objection is made.
A senior member of the opposition told Stabroek News that they are relying on their list of names submitted to the Elections Commission during the March 2020 recount.
“We did not have to make more objections but we are monitoring the process. We are relying on the submissions we made during the recount process and hope that GECOM investigates those. The responsibility is on GECOM to ensure that the list is not padded with dead people and we are monitoring the process carefully,” the source related.
On Tuesday, APNU+AFC’s Chief Scrutineer Carol Joseph-Smith wrote to GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Smith, calling for the full list of their 2020 objections to be forwarded to the Guyana Police Force.
“…the APNU+AFC submitted to the commission several lists of persons for whom votes were cast but who were either dead or not in Guyana on Election Day. We are aware that only a small number of our submission was forwarded to the Guyana Police Force (the Immigration Office) for verification. We are also aware that the GPF has returned to GECOM its findings.
“Those findings clearly provide evidence of significant voter impersonation. Despite the far-reaching implications of this evidence, GECOM has failed in its constitutional duty to complete the verification exercise and to complete its own investigation of the matter,” the letter stated.
Joseph-Smith, in her letter, made several requests to the Commission; namely, that it forward to the GPF and the General Register Office for verification all of the information it received from the APNU+AFC in relation to voter impersonation. The Opposition also requested that GECOM publicly and promptly releases the first set of verified reports already in its possession.
“[We request that GECOM] restarts the internal probe into the matter, which it aborted in 2020, and publicly release its own findings; it addresses the implications of its findings of that probe, and it publicly communicates the corrective actions it proposes and intends to take to prevent any attempts of voter impersonation in future elections,” the letter requested.
Additionally, Joseph-Smith reminded that GECOM has a constitutional function of conducting elections that reflect the true will of the Guyanese electorate as well as building public confidence in elections and the Commission itself.
