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Government-appointed Commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission [GECOM), Vincent Alexander (Department of Public Information photo)

Government-appointed Commissioner of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Vincent Alexander (Department of Public Information photo)

October 17 2019

Source

On Tuesday, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) spent its statutory meeting discussing two more proposals that government-nominated commissioners argued would strengthen the Official List of Electors while opposition-nominated commissioners stressed that they would “disenfranchise voters”.

Speaking on Tuesday on behalf of the government-nominated commissioners, commissioner Vincent Alexander explained after the meeting that the commission is now considering removing from the list the names of approximately 20,000 persons who have not collected their National Identification Cards (ID Card) since the 2008 House to House registration exercise (HtH).

Alexander argued that if the proposal is approved by the commission this failure to uplift could be used as a means to lodge an “objection” to the inclusion of those names on the Official List of Electors (OLE).

“We are using the ID cards issue to determine the presence of our voters, their existence. It’s like an objection. So the issue is not the ID cards; the issue is that these persons since 2008 and beyond 2008 have not, in any way, presented themselves to be present, to be known, to be alive, to be existing, to be resident, and then calling them, writing to them, gives us an opportunity to make a determination in the context of like an objection as to where are they. Are they real people at this time?” Alexander sought to explain. He noted that the commission has over the last few years sought to locate some of these persons through visits to their registered address and registered mail.

Currently persons may object to an inclusion on the OLE if a person is not of legal voting age, dead, not a citizen of Guyana or a citizen of a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for at least a year.

There is no direct correlation between the right to vote and the possession of an ID card as established by the 1997 Esther Pereira Elections Petition.

This point was raised on Tuesday by opposition-nominated  Commissioner Robeson Benn who argued that while some of the 20,000 may be dead some may have migrated and even if they were to travel to Guyana on the day of the elections they have a right to vote.

His colleague Bibi Shadick stressed that such a move would be akin to deregistration and noted that a court action would be filed to challenge any such decision by a “majority” of the commission.

“I’m not going for that. Apparently these commissioners are intensely afraid of allowing people to vote so they are trying as hard as they can to get as many people as they can not to exercise their franchise. You can’t disenfranchise people that’s a battle I will fight to the end,” she said.

The second proposal provides for persons who did not participate or who were not registered during the 2019 HtH to be “highlighted” on the OLE.

Shadick was contemptuous of the suggestion noting that a Presiding Officer could use such highlighting as a means to block voters.  

“Any Presiding Officer seeing such highlighting will think that the person should not be allowed to vote because they haven’t done something,” she argued. 

Alexander however maintained that the proposal will only create awareness of people whose whereabouts are unknown.

“All it means is that you create an awareness of people whose whereabouts are unknown and, therefore…create a greater alertness at the polling station when people come to vote in those names because, as we have said, at the very inception, a bloated list provides the opportunity for multiple and substitute voting and so you need to be alert about the names which can be used for substitute voting,” he stressed.

The current list of electors contains 646, 625 entries but government has continuously argued that this number is bloated by at least 200,000. A HtH was initiated on July 20 to cleanse this list but it was truncated after acting Chief Justice Roxane George ruled that existing registrants could not be excised from a new voters’ list unless they were deceased or otherwise disqualified under Article 159 (2), (3) or (4) of the Constitution.

This ruling has since been partially appealed by Attorney General Basil Williams who has argued that Section 6 of the Registration Act provides for “residency” during the period of a qualifying date as a requirement for registration.

Section 6 (2)(a) of the Act specifies that “it shall be lawful for the commission by order with effect from a specific date to authorise the registration of all persons in Guyana of the age of 14 years and over who at said date are resident in Guyana.”

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Django posted:

20,000 persons who have not collected their National Identification Cards (ID Card) since the 2008 House to House registration exercise (HtH).

Where are these people ??

 

most are around. People shows up to vote without  ID and were allowed because officials at the polling booth have photographs and other documents to verify the voters , they have to take a oath . 

At the last LGE , over 300 police and army show up without ID cards and were allowed to vote and these buggers knows the right thing. 

This is a game plan by PNC, the process will take longer, polling booth time will have to be extend or they will riot, in the process the box gets stuff . 

FM
Last edited by Former Member
Dave posted:
Django posted:

20,000 persons who have not collected their National Identification Cards (ID Card) since the 2008 House to House registration exercise (HtH).

Where are these people ??

most are around. People shows up to vote without  ID and were allowed because officials at the polling booth have photographs and other documents to verify the voters , they have to take a oath . 

At the last LGE , over 300 police and army show up without ID cards and were allowed to vote and these buggers knows the right thing.

This is a game plan by PNC, the process will take longer, polling booth time will have to be extend or they will riot, in the process the box gets stuff . 

Banna that's dating back to 2008', looks like people who migrate . H2H would have produced a credible voters list.

Django
Django posted:
Dave posted:
Django posted:

20,000 persons who have not collected their National Identification Cards (ID Card) since the 2008 House to House registration exercise (HtH).

Where are these people ??

most are around. People shows up to vote without  ID and were allowed because officials at the polling booth have photographs and other documents to verify the voters , they have to take a oath . 

At the last LGE , over 300 police and army show up without ID cards and were allowed to vote and these buggers knows the right thing.

This is a game plan by PNC, the process will take longer, polling booth time will have to be extend or they will riot, in the process the box gets stuff . 

Banna that's dating back to 2008', looks like people who migrate . H2H would have produced a credible voters list.

What credible list?  370k in a few weeks even where PPP boycotted.  My relatives in GT said they did not see anyone coming to their homes!

The PNC alee already doctored the existing list using stolen IDs and fake ID cards. The Haitians, foreign students, under aged, Angolans, etc will all show up at polling stations with stolen Guyanese IDs lifted from the bloated list!

FM
Django posted:
Dave posted:
Django posted:

20,000 persons who have not collected their National Identification Cards (ID Card) since the 2008 House to House registration exercise (HtH).

Where are these people ??

most are around. People shows up to vote without  ID and were allowed because officials at the polling booth have photographs and other documents to verify the voters , they have to take a oath . 

At the last LGE , over 300 police and army show up without ID cards and were allowed to vote and these buggers knows the right thing.

This is a game plan by PNC, the process will take longer, polling booth time will have to be extend or they will riot, in the process the box gets stuff . 

Banna that's dating back to 2008', looks like people who migrate . H2H would have produced a credible voters list.

What if they didn't migrate and show up to vote...riot and moh fiya...

sachin_05
Django posted:
Dave posted:
Django posted:

20,000 persons who have not collected their National Identification Cards (ID Card) since the 2008 House to House registration exercise (HtH).

Where are these people ??

most are around. People shows up to vote without  ID and were allowed because officials at the polling booth have photographs and other documents to verify the voters , they have to take a oath . 

At the last LGE , over 300 police and army show up without ID cards and were allowed to vote and these buggers knows the right thing.

This is a game plan by PNC, the process will take longer, polling booth time will have to be extend or they will riot, in the process the box gets stuff . 

Banna that's dating back to 2008', looks like people who migrate . H2H would have produced a credible voters list.

How would H2H produce a credible list, when register voters could have gone overseas on holidays or studying among other reasons . This process will disenfranchise hundreds of legal voters. 

BTW It’s been over 4 years and GECOM cannot put their house in order. You on the other hand agreed last year December 22nd  on the NCV, election can be held within the required time line using the same list at LGE. But I guess it was a wake up call for PNC where PPP came back and trash their Arss and ayo using every illegal means to pad the list in ayo favour. 

GECOM has over 4 plus years to put their bloody house in order, as election is constitutionally due next year anyway. But Not everyone can be  effective managers or planners, while some can be good teachers, Doctors, law enforcement officers.
Unfortunately, that’s what we are getting from some people in position. 

FM
Baseman posted:
Django posted:

Looks like the losers coming up with all types of accusations, well there are three watch dogs from the opposition.

Wuh dem watching?

Them watching to see if any padding taking place.

Django
Django posted:
Baseman posted:
Django posted:

Looks like the losers coming up with all types of accusations, well there are three watch dogs from the opposition.

Wuh dem watching?

Them watching to see if any padding taking place.

PNC done do dem mischief!   Ayuh think people stupid!

FM

Why is this woman, Claudette Singh, not speaking about the elections?  The Chairperson ought to play a leading role and be answerable to the press. She is not doing this.  I am suspicious of this woman.  She could be working with APNU quietly behind the scene.

Billy Ram Balgobin
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Why is this woman, Claudette Singh, not speaking about the elections?  The Chairperson ought to play a leading role and be answerable to the press. She is not doing this.  I am suspicious of this woman.  She could be working with APNU quietly behind the scene.

Guyana seems so crooked.  It’s almost impossible to find someone not tainted be partisan crookery.  Tone at the top.

FM
Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

Why is this woman, Claudette Singh, not speaking about the elections?  The Chairperson ought to play a leading role and be answerable to the press. She is not doing this.  I am suspicious of this woman.  She could be working with APNU quietly behind the scene.

That's a no brainer, she is waiting to call the election null and void when the 20,000 voters show up to vote and find out they were taken off the list because they didn't pickup their id cards...

sachin_05

Justice Claudette Singh’s attitudinal metamorphosis


There have been several editorials, columns and letters in the newspapers the past five weeks that have not been endearing to Justice Claudette Singh, the GECOM chairperson. The fundamental reason for criticising her is because she unambiguously stated when accepting the chairperson’s tenure, she will follow the law.
It is the opinion of this writer that she has not and for this reason, she should be the focus of trenchant analysis (see my column, of Tuesday, August 27, 2019, headlined, “Justice Claudette Singh’s behaviour justifies harsh criticism.”
Since I wrote that piece, in my opinion, the GECOM chair has not made any policy move that would make citizens feel that she intends to follow the law. When Justice Singh declared the 1997 elections null and void, she was extremely brave in some of her pronouncement, apart from her main judgment that the production of special election ID cards was a violation of the constitution.
Justice Singh said she accepted that there were frauds committed in the 1977 general election. These included switching of numbers to favour one party over the other, disappearance of ballot boxes, collusion among election officials. These were harsh critiques that were part of her judgment. But to repeat – this judge ruled that the arrangement and conduct of the 1997 election were in violation of the constitution.
This same judge is now chairperson of GECOM, and in my opinion, there is what Forbes Burnham was fond of saying, an “attitudinal metamorphosis.” The very constitution that Madam Singh read to vitiate an entire national election, she seems oblivious to what it currently designates.
The Guyana constitution in Article 106(7), with pellucid use of words, outlines a situation that when a no-confidence motion (NCM) is passed, there must be election in three months. What about that article Madam Singh doesn’t understand? The CCJ ruled that since the NCM is valid, then election should be held three months after its ruling. This was in June. Election then should be this month. It is six weeks since she became the head of GECOM and she has made no pronouncement as to when GECOM will be ready to proceed with a general poll based on the very constitution that Madam Singh used as the basis for vitiating an entire election in Guyana.
One columnist quotes Justice Singh as referring to herself as the “Iron Lady.” Well, I am wondering if the “Iron Lady” has had an attitudinal metamorphosis and has opened herself to a new label, the Paper Lady.” Paper compared to iron is easily torn. One newspaper has taken the view that the Iron Lady is trying to seek compromise between the two opposing sides that make up the Commission.
That is not the role of GECOM chairperson. The essential task of such an office is to follow the constitution. The NCM was passed since December 2018. You cannot fault APNU+AFC for wanting to test the validity of the NCM in court. That was their right. It caused a delay in the holding of the general election, but I would argue that the APNU+AFC leaders were entitled to ask the court to rule on whether 34 votes were needed to pass the NCM.
To many, the 34 argument and the court case were egregious delaying stratagems. Such a position is wrong. The Appeal Court decided that 34 were needed to pass an NCM. How against that background can you dismiss the right of APNU+AFC to seek court intervention? We have gone way past that. Guyana’s final court ruled that on December 21, the NCM was properly put and properly voted on. This is where the Iron Lady comes in.
From the time she entered her office at GECOM, her one-dimensional task was to arrange for a general election. She did nothing of the sort. She ended house-to-house registration (HTH) and created a colossal contradiction. If the court ruled that HTH was legally proper, then in stopping it, she should have proceeded with the extant database and allowed for claims and objections.
But she stopped the HTH and still insisted that the inclusions in the HTH project be part of the database. I am afraid the Iron Lady missed the point. If HTH is legal then in stopping it, you may disenfranchise persons who have missed the HTH personnel. What happens to those persons? This is where the Iron Lady may open GECOM to court litigation.
My question is, “If GECOM were doing a legal

process of registering citizens to vote, how and why can it be stopped?” The Iron Lady needs to study the very constitution that was her road map in the 1997 election.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspape

FM

PPP concerned about rigged elections

According to the PPP in a statement on Wednesday, the Government Commissioners are shamelessly attempting to reinstitute the use of an ID card as a qualification to vote – a measure that the current GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, had ruled was illegal and unconstitutional back in 1998 in the Esther Pereira case.

Pereira, a PNC supporter, had petitioned the High Court to set aside the results of the 1997 elections. Justice Singh ruled that the requirement for voters to have a voter ID card in 1997 was ultra vires Articles 59 and 159 of the Constitution (despite a parliamentary agreement to use the cards).

Moreover, the Opposition went on to point out that the removal of names from the Official List of Electors (OLE) simply because these persons did not uplift their ID cards is illegal and contrary to the recent ruling of Chief Justice Roxane George.

Back in August, the Chief Justice ruled that persons cannot be removed from the voters’ list unless they are dead or otherwise disqualified to vote under Article 159 (2) (3) or (4)PPP concerned about rigged elections

“From the foregoing, it is clear that the APNU/AFC is preparing the ground either to set aside the entire elections as illegal and unconstitutional, when they lose, or by rigging the elections by disenfranchising tens of thousands of Guyanese electors,” the PPP contended.

FM

Why worry! You and I know that the election is already rigged in favour of APNU. But PPP continues to have faith in the corrupted Claudette Singh, who takes her orders from The DAG. That AFC Ramjattan saying that the AFC is dead meat will come true  after the election results are known. 

FM

The reason Singh is now insisting in ID cards is the same reason she ruled against it in the 1997 elections. She lacks human decency. What happens when you hang out in the wrong crowd.

FM

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