GECOM ready for Monday polls - Surujbally
Georgetown, GINA, November 25, 2011
Source - GINA
Chairman of the Elections Commission- Dr. Steve Surujbally at the Guyana Elections Commission press conference held at Hotel Tower on Main Street
Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr. Steve Surujbally, at a press conference held at the Hotel Tower on Main Street, told media operatives and Elections Observers- both local and international, that GECOM is ready to execute its elections mandate given by the State.
Surujbally stated that, “internal steps of preparation began immediately after the 2006 elections”, thereby political parties and citizens are seeing those plans being executed.
With General and Regional Elections 2011, three days away, local observers are in a state of readiness to effect their duties.
Surujbally said that Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Technological (SWOT) analysis was conducted in the manner in which the 2006 election was conducted with a view to improving the deficiencies that existed in 2006.
“ What we zeroed in on were our inefficiencies, though they were not many, we addressed them and have now raised the bar once more to have a better execution of elections compared to 2006,” Surujbally said.
A section of both local and international observers that attended the Guyana Elections Commission press conference at Hotel Tower
Towards this end, this saw a complete revamping of persons authorized to issue certificates of citizenships, where in the past, “ anybody and their uncle could issue an authority to say that you were Guyanese, GECOM decided that this could not work, therefore sought an agreement with the political parties and embarked on a house to house registration which saw no stone being left unturned, requesting registrants to submit their source documents(birth certificate) as proof of citizenship along with name and age,” Surujbally said.
He alluded to the fact that, in Amerindian communities, many residents did not have birth certificates, which caused collaboration between the Ministry of Home Affairs and GECOM to have such persons do what was necessary to get one, thereby causing them to be registered.
Chairman of the Elections Commission- Dr. Steve Surujbally interacts with observers at a press conference held at Hotel Tower
Another aspect of the preparation stage for the 2011 polls was the continuous registration along with a claims and objections period.
“At the end of the registration exercise which lasted six months, the claims and objections period began. At the end of the final claims and objections period, political parties and persons argued that thousands of people were still not yet registered, nor had they received their birth certificates, therefore forcing the Commission to further extend the claims and objections period. During this extended period 7,000 voters were registered,” Surujbally said.
With the claims and objections period closed, GECOM then began to compile its Official List of Electors, however, before this could have been made final, a “finger print cross matching exercise was done to ensure persons were not registered twice… the cases that were picked up during this exercise were deemed honest mistakes, since the persons had moved out and thought it was necessary to re-register instead of apply for a transfer…these issues were resolved, and we have now published a 99.9% accurate OLE,” Surujbally said.
At the end of the press conference, local and international observers were updated on the protocol, which dictates the manner in which they ought to conduct themselves in the execution of their duties at Monday’s poll.
Georgetown, GINA, November 25, 2011
Source - GINA
Chairman of the Elections Commission- Dr. Steve Surujbally at the Guyana Elections Commission press conference held at Hotel Tower on Main StreetChairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Dr. Steve Surujbally, at a press conference held at the Hotel Tower on Main Street, told media operatives and Elections Observers- both local and international, that GECOM is ready to execute its elections mandate given by the State.
Surujbally stated that, “internal steps of preparation began immediately after the 2006 elections”, thereby political parties and citizens are seeing those plans being executed.
With General and Regional Elections 2011, three days away, local observers are in a state of readiness to effect their duties.
Surujbally said that Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Technological (SWOT) analysis was conducted in the manner in which the 2006 election was conducted with a view to improving the deficiencies that existed in 2006.
“ What we zeroed in on were our inefficiencies, though they were not many, we addressed them and have now raised the bar once more to have a better execution of elections compared to 2006,” Surujbally said.
A section of both local and international observers that attended the Guyana Elections Commission press conference at Hotel TowerTowards this end, this saw a complete revamping of persons authorized to issue certificates of citizenships, where in the past, “ anybody and their uncle could issue an authority to say that you were Guyanese, GECOM decided that this could not work, therefore sought an agreement with the political parties and embarked on a house to house registration which saw no stone being left unturned, requesting registrants to submit their source documents(birth certificate) as proof of citizenship along with name and age,” Surujbally said.
He alluded to the fact that, in Amerindian communities, many residents did not have birth certificates, which caused collaboration between the Ministry of Home Affairs and GECOM to have such persons do what was necessary to get one, thereby causing them to be registered.
Chairman of the Elections Commission- Dr. Steve Surujbally interacts with observers at a press conference held at Hotel TowerAnother aspect of the preparation stage for the 2011 polls was the continuous registration along with a claims and objections period.
“At the end of the registration exercise which lasted six months, the claims and objections period began. At the end of the final claims and objections period, political parties and persons argued that thousands of people were still not yet registered, nor had they received their birth certificates, therefore forcing the Commission to further extend the claims and objections period. During this extended period 7,000 voters were registered,” Surujbally said.
With the claims and objections period closed, GECOM then began to compile its Official List of Electors, however, before this could have been made final, a “finger print cross matching exercise was done to ensure persons were not registered twice… the cases that were picked up during this exercise were deemed honest mistakes, since the persons had moved out and thought it was necessary to re-register instead of apply for a transfer…these issues were resolved, and we have now published a 99.9% accurate OLE,” Surujbally said.
At the end of the press conference, local and international observers were updated on the protocol, which dictates the manner in which they ought to conduct themselves in the execution of their duties at Monday’s poll.