Over 30,000 persons will be left off voters’ list if house-to-house registration data not used

-PNCR

Charging that the PPP/C has no interest in credible elections, the PNCR, the majority partner in the coalition government, on Friday said that if data gathered during the houseto-house registration is not used as the opposition party is insisting, over 30,000 persons will be left off the voters’ list.

“The PNCR maintains its call for a clean and inclusive list. The ruling of the Chief Justice that the house-to-house registration was legal was accepted by all. The use of the data will not impact negatively on the election date. It should, therefore, be used in the interest of free and fair elections, elections in which every eligible and qualified citizen is able to exercise the franchise,” party executive Joseph Harmon said at the party’s weekly press conference.

Reading from a prepared statement, he observed that thousands of Guyanese were registered in the house-to-house exercise, including young people who turned 18 years since the last elections. Noting that the PPP/C is still insisting that the data gathered during the houseto-house exercise not be used, Harmon said that if that position prevails, over 60,000 new registrants, who were only recorded during the exercise, would not be committed to the database. “Consequently, over 30,000 voters, those 18 years and over, will not find themselves on the voters’ list, and those persons who changed their particulars during the house-tohouse period would be listed with the old particulars,” Harmon said. He said that tens of thousands of persons who have changed their particulars would be affected even as he questioned why the PPP/C would want to disenfranchise voters.

Harmon said that all registrants have a reasonable expectation that their applications would be processed in time for their names to be included in the Official List of Electors for the elections scheduled for March 2nd, 2020.

“The PNCR, therefore, relies on the decisions already made by GECOM, which have been reported in the press, and the public assurances provided through its Chairperson, Justice (Retired) Claudette Singh that all the data collected during the house-tohouse registration exercise will, after having been subjected to the commission’s well-established standard procedures, be utilised to update the existing National Register of Registrants database and consequentially the List of Electors to be used for the upcoming elections,” Harmon said.

Meanwhile, Harmon said that the PPP/C’s attitude to the electoral roll is further manifested in their approach to the distribution of national identification (ID) cards. He observed that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has failed in its repeated efforts to locate thousands of persons for the purpose of delivering ID cards. To date, over 18,000 ID cards remain uncollected. According to Harmon, while those persons existence remain in question, the only concern of the PPP/C is that those names should remain on the list.

Harmon charged that the PPP/C’s only interest in preserving the bloated, uncleansed and dated list “is so that their managed ghosts could be more effectively hidden and thus more difficult to ferret out.”

According to him, “The list in this vulnerable state is prime for voter manipulation, as was reported without redress in 2006; for which a presiding officer was fired on the spot in 2011; and caused a registration officer to part company with GECOM in 2018.”

Stabroek News reported recently that only 290 persons have collected their ID cards out of 18,512 that are being held by GECOM. Beginning on November 9th, GECOM has published in the four daily newspapers and on the commission’s website, the names of who have not collected their cards some from since 2008.

An Order signed by Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield 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 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 General Register of Registrants (NRR) shall not be cancelled,” it explains.

GECOM Chair retired Justice Claudette Singh has 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 Chief Justice Roxane George, 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.