Persons on preliminary voters’ list required to verify registration, GECOM order says

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday declared that all potential voters for the 2020 elections must verify their registration during the extended Claims and Objections (C&O) process, sparking a furore among opposition-nominated commissioners who said the move was illegal.

It has never been a requirement for persons on a preliminary voters’ list to verify their identity with a registration office and there was no explanation for the change by the commission yesterday.

“During this exercise, every person whose name appear[s] on the Prelimi-nary List of Electors (PLE) must visit the Registration office in their respective area with their National Identification Card to verify their registration record in order to be included in the Official List of Electors (OLE),” the Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward, said in a statement issued yesterday.

The statement is a direct reference to the wording of the recently gazetted National Registration (Residents) Order No. 70 of 2019. The order states in its second schedule that the days on which persons listed on the Preliminary List are to visit the Registration Office… to verify his/her registration record for inclusion on the Official List of Electors (OLE) will be October 1 to November 11, 2019.

Responding to questions from Stabroek News, Ward emphasised that as per the Order those who do not verify their registration will not be included in the OLE.

This new GECOM order will be seen as a bid to impose a residency requirement for voting as Attorney General Basil Williams  has been trying to accomplish in court,

Opposition-nominated members of the commission have roundly condemned this move labelling it as “hogwash”.

“This can only be seen as an attempt to foist another version of house-to-house on the citizens of this nation,” Commission-er Sase Gunraj declared during an urgent press conference yesterday. He stressed that this was never a position taken by the commission “either in whole or in part,” contending that in fact it was never discussed at the level of the commission.

Gunraj also suggested that the order contravenes the ruling of Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire which states that the removal of names from the list would be unconstitutional unless said persons are deceased or otherwise disqualified under Article 159 (2) (3) or (4).

“She stated specifically that residency was not a requirement to be included on the OLE and by extension the PLE,” he reminded. Government has since appealed this aspect of the ruling and asked for a stay of the attached order.

Government-nominated commission Desmond Trotman, however, presented a different position.

According to Trotman “when the chair made her announcement last Thurs-day she touched on that and so there is no variation, I believe, on what she had said. If that is what the order says it is consistent with what she had said when she announced she will be writing the President in relation to GECOM’s readiness. She did not only say that GECOM would be ready in February she spoke to a number of issues and then she made that declaration.” 

Trotman also stressed that he has no complaints about the 49 days provided for C&O.

“We want to ensure that all the persons who want to make a claim would be able to do so. I assume that when the chair signed the order she would’ve taken this into consideration. My position has always been that all of the persons who are eligible should be on the list,” he said.

On Tuesday government and opposition-nominated members of the Commission had announced to reporters that there was a unanimous agreement for there to be an extensive C&O process for 35 days but the Order provides for 49 days.

The secretariat has not commented on this difference but Gunraj and Robeson Benn have labelled the Order and the statement which repeats the 49 days period as “mischievous” misinformation.

They noted that they had met with Chairperson Claudette Singh on the matter and she undertook to investigate the circumstances which led to the “erroneous publication” but were unable to provide a date on which feedback would be received.

Benn repeatedly claimed that Singh had been provided “different dates than the ones published in the order.”

“They slip one under or pass her,” Benn stressed, while Gunraj noted that he has received information that the document appearing in the gazette is not the one signed by the Chairman. Stabroek News has been unable to confirm this information with the Chair.

Claims and Objections will be conducted at all GECOM Registration Offices countrywide and will conclude on 18th November, 2019.

Persons have until 11th November, 2019 to make a claim to be included on the list if they are a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, naturalization or registration, 18 years or older or will attain the age of eighteen by 31st December, 2019. A citizen of a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for a period of no less than one year preceding 31st December, 2019 can also be registered to be on the list.

The Commission also urges persons who require changes or corrections to their particulars and transfers in relation to their addresses to do same when verifying their registration.

Objections against the inclusion of names on the PLE can be tendered to the Registration Officer of the Registration Area from 1st October, 2019 to 18th November, 2019.

Over the next few days, the Commission is expected to set up temporary offices and mobiles countrywide to aid the efficient conduct of the exercise and will publish the full list of those offices to ensure applicants registrants can access the office within close proximity to them to have their transaction done.