Claims and objections process to last for 49 days
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has published an order for a 49-day-long Claims and Objections (C&O) process that will run from October 1st to November 18th, 2019.
While government and oppositionnominated members of the Commission had announced to reporters on Tuesday that there was a unanimous agreement for there to be an extensive C&O process for 35 days, the Order signed by Chairperson Claudette Singh caters for the 49-day process.
According to the Order, the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) will be published on or before September 29 and persons 18 years or older as of December 31st, 2019, can from October 1st make a claim to be added to the list.
Claims can be made for a 42-day period from October 1st to November 11th, 2019 both days inclusive. Objections to the inclusion of persons who may be dead or otherwise disqualified may be submitted to Registration Officers for the 49-day period from October 1st to November 18th.
Registration Officers shall begin to hear and determine objections and appeals on November 20th, 2019 before submitting all complete objections and applications for corrections to the Commissioner of Registration by November 25, 2019.
The order states that January 4th, 2020, will be the last day on which Commissioner of Registration Keith Lowenfield makes alterations to the PLE to give effect to the decisions on C&O.
Aside from the longest C&O period in Guyana’s recent history, the order provides for a larger gap between some statutory activities than is normal. In previous orders, hearings to determine objections and appeals have been held during the same period in which the objections were received as in 2018 when hearings started on March 6th, while objections were received from February 4th to March 8th.
In 2018, final alterations to the PLE occurred on April 8th, which means that Lowenfield had less than three weeks to give effect to decisions from C&O, while in 2019 this process is slated to take more than five weeks.