GECOM ending house-to-house early to prepare for polls

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has decided to conclude its national house-to-house registration exercise at the end of this month as it moves towards the holding of general elections “within the shortest time possible.”

In a statement, GECOM said its Chairperson, retired judge Claudette Singh, at a statutory meeting today ordered that the registration process be concluded by month end and that the data collected be merged with the existing national register of registrants. Further, it said GECOM will also move to conduct an extensive claims and objections process before extracting a preliminary voters’ list.

GECOM has recently been under scrutiny over its readiness to proceed with elections as a result of President David Granger holding to the position that it must advise him of a date for the polls. The elections are due as a result of the National Assembly’s passage of a no-confidence motion against the government last December. The constitution requires that elections be held within three months of the passage of a no-confidence motion against government, unless an extension is granted by not less than two-thirds of the elected members of the National Assembly. However, legal challenges to the validity of the passage of the motion in part stalled preparations.

GECOM’s decision to proceed with a planned three-month-long house-to-house registration from July 20th, based on a majority vote by government-nominated members and then Chairman James Patterson, resulted in a legal challenge by attorney Christopher Ram in light of general elections being required.

Based on his challenge, acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire ruled that the registration exercise is not unconstitutional. The judge, however, cautioned that existing registrants cannot just be deleted from the GECOM database unless certain criteria provided by law are met—that being by death or by specified means of disqualification. She has also said the Commission must be cognisant of the “extraordinary circumstances” under which it is currently operating, given the passage of the no-confidence motion against the government.

As a result, the decision called into question the rationale behind continuing with the exercise as “sanitising” the database of deceased and migrant registrants had been one of the arguments for it.

The full statement from the commission follows:

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kpHonorary Member

House-to-House Registration to halt from August 31

By Staff Reporter -

August 27, 2019

266

Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh moments ago took a decision to stop the ongoing House-to-House Registration exercise with effect from Saturday, August 31, 2019.

Justice Singh took the decision during a meeting with Commissioners of the Elections Commission this afternoon at GECOM’s High and Cowan Streets, Kingston Office.
In a statement, issued after the meeting, GECOM explained that the data garnered from House-to-House Registration will be merged with existing National Register of Registrants Database.

Acknowledging that the No-Confidence Motion passed in the National Assembly triggered a number of legal challenges in the local Courts, GECOM said those matters concluded with a ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

“Cognizant of all that has transpired over the past months, GECOM has an obligation to produce a credible Official List of Electors (OLE) in the first instance and ultimately credible elections within the shortest possible time,” the Elections Commission said.

According to the elections body, it was after considerable deliberations at the Commission on the way forward regarding the conduct of General and Regional Elections, that Justice Singh, at the Statutory Meeting, instructed that House to House Registration be discontinued. Over 290,000 persons have been registered during the exercise.

“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,” the commission said.
It added, “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).”

As such, the Commission will move to an extensive Claims and Objections Exercise (C&O) before extracting the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).

“The Commission will continue to further deliberate on other matters of importance for the holding of General and Regional Elections within the shortest possible time and Secretariat will continue to implement a number of operations activities, in particular, training of polling day staff and procurement of non-sensitive materials,” GECOM said in the statement.

8/27/194:35 PM

kpHonorary Member

Shadick and her colleague PPP nominated commissioners are opposed to the merger of the data

8/27/194:37 PM

Former Member

kp posted:
Shadick and her colleague PPP nominated commissioners are opposed to the merger of the data

It has to be audited.

8/27/194:39 PM

Former Member

kp posted:
Shadick and her colleague PPP nominated commissioners are opposed to the merger of the data

That is not a sound objection. I guess they are opposed to the data on grounds they objected to H2H. However that is water under the bridge so they need to do due diligence and vet the work product and protect their electors.

They need to know what is being merged with what and how. They already have the old list so they can forensically extract the new one if the get a copy of the merged list.

We have computers so use them along with your field staff and statisticians to make valid cases about any attempt to pad or otherwise compromise the list. Quit the beating around the bush and lets get on with elections.

8/27/196:55 PM

Former Member

The sell out Opposition leader Jagdeo next move is to grant the extension to the end of October for election. He will do it without returning to the National Assembly. Nehru can run the PPP better than Jagdeo.

8/27/198:10 PM

Former Member

What is the basis for concluding the H2H on August 31, 2019? If they will not be able to canvas every house in the nation by August 31, 2019, why continue at all instead of stopping right now?

8/27/198:27 PM

Former Member

They registered all the Haitian’s and the Cubans first and will now merge them with the old list. You think Granger stupid. Granger told Claudette that they will finish registering the Haitians by August 31, 2019. That is why it took her so long to make a decision. Why do you think that they cannot account for them.

8/27/198:46 PM

Former Member

Baseman posted:
kp posted:
Shadick and her colleague PPP nominated commissioners are opposed to the merger of the data
It has to be audited.

Who is going to do the audit and do you think GECOM will allow this?

8/27/198:49 PM

Former Member

What does shortest possible time mean?

8/27/198:50 PM

Former Member

Dondadda posted:
They registered all the Haitian’s and the Cubans first and will now merge them with the old list. You think Granger stupid. Granger told Claudette that they will finish registering the Haitians by August 31, 2019. That is why it took her so long to make a decision. Why do you think that they cannot account for them.

Plausible. Maybe that's why they had those secret meetings?

Should be audited by Price Waterhouse and Deloitte and Touche!

8/27/199:07 PM

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GECOM ending house-to-house early to prepare for polls

Andre Haynes 26 mins ago

House-to-House Registration to halt from August 31

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GECOM ending house-to-house early to prepare for polls

Andre Haynes 26 mins ago

House-to-House Registration to halt from August 31

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