GECOM still to decide on house-to-house data

-after five-hour meeting

Following a five-hour meeting yesterday of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the body is no closer to deciding what to do with the data collected during the aborted house-to-house registration carried out recently.

This is according to opposition-nominated commissioner, Sase Gunraj, who, during an interview with Stabroek News, said commissioners could not decide on the utility of the information because the GECOM secretariat has not completed its investigation of the data.

Gunraj, who stated that yesterday’s meeting started at 1:00pm and ended at 6:00pm, said commissioners expected that they would be provided with fully analysed information, which would have enabled them to determine what role, if any, it will play in the election on March 2nd, 2020.

As a result, Gunraj shared, the commissioners agreed to give the secretariat additional time to do what needs to be done with the house-to-house information.

At the end of October, the data generated from the house-to-house exercise was posted along with the preliminary list of electors (PLE) wherever PLEs were posted. No directions as to the purpose of the list accompanied it, or was published elsewhere. Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield, and GECOM Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward had offered no explanation for this line of action, but government-nominated commissioner, Charles Corbin, had said that the transactions published should be treated with “the same procedure used during claims and objections.”

“The persons who were registered during the house-to-house [exercise] would need to verify that the information there is that which they recorded,” he Corbin, adding that this information may trigger a statement of revision which is a normal process set out in legislation.

Former Attorney General, and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, is of the view that any attempt to use the data collected during the house-to-house process is illegal, and is capable of forming the basis of an elections petition.

On August 27th, GECOM Chair Justice (rtd) Claudette Singh had ordered that:

House to House Registration must be brought to an end. As such, Order 25 of 2019 published in the Official Gazette should be amended for the exercise to conclude on 31st August, 2019 instead of 20th October, 2019.

Based on the ruling of the Chief Justice on 14th August, 2019 that House to House Registration is not unlawful and is constitutional, the data garnered from that registration exercise must be merged with the existing National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).