GUYANA’s first president, His Excellency Mr Arthur Chung, tops a list of scores of people who, though dead, are still included on the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) current Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).

Investigations by this newspaper have confirmed the inclusion of Chung’s name on the PLE, as well as the names of several other high-profile figures who are now deceased.

Arthur Chung

A source at GECOM told the Guyana Chronicle that names for the PLE are generated from the National Register of Registrants (NRR), and, as per the Commission’s procedures, are removed from the NRR only after the General Registrar’s Office (GRO) has forwarded authentic documentation indicating those persons have died.

“If the Commission receives a report from the GRO saying that a death was registered, then it removes that name from the list. The Commission has to see authentic documentation in the same way it demands authentic documentation for first-time registration,” the source said.

Minister Clement Rohee

The GECOM source added that, in the event that a death has not been registered and the name of a deceased person remains on the NRR — even a high profile name like that of former president Chung — the Commission depends on the various measures it has in place to ensure that no person votes twice or casts a vote for someone else.

“The GRO sends a list monthly to the Commission. The Commission does not go out for information…anyone who is reported as dead, the claims and objections period provides the opportunity for that name to be objected to, and there is a procedure to treat with any such objection with a view to determining whether the objection be upheld or denied,” the source said.

The ongoing process of objections ends on September 3.

A CLEAN LIST

General Secretary of the ruling PPP, Mr Clement Rohee, when asked to comment on the issue, told the Guyana Chronicle that the party wants a “clean” list of electors, and has been writing

DCEO, Mr. Vishnu Persaud

the Commission about the names of deceased persons included on the list.

He said, “As we find the names of persons who are deceased, we have been writing to GECOM. Our party activists on the ground have been using the claims and objections period to bring this problem to the attention of the Commission.”

Rohee added that, given that the Commission uses either authentic documentation from GRO or documentation from persons raising objections, there ought to be some flexibility by GECOM to ensure the credibility and integrity of the final voters’ list.

“GECOM has to exercise some flexibility where persons, including well-known persons, who have died can be removed. Our party has been working with GECOM to address this, but GECOM needs to work closer with the GRO. For GECOM to wait for someone to object, well we are not going to get a far way this way,” Rohee said.

Rohee also said that while GECOM insists that it has measures in place to avoid persons voting twice, or someone voting for someone else, past experience makes it clear that the system is not water tight.

“If someone wants to bog the system, they can find ways and means to do so. We are working to ensure this does not happen. We all have a role to play, and we must work together to clean up the list as much as possible…. If we build Chinese wall around the system, we would have a problem,” he said.

Rohee stressed that the ruling party has a vested interest in ensuring that the Official List of Electors (OLE) is a clean list. He noted that the PPP will continue to work with GECOM

ONLY PARTY CONCERNED

Additionally, Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DECO) Mr. Vishnu Persaud, in a prior interview, confirmed that of the three parliamentary political parties, the People’s Progressive Party is the only party that has raised concerns with the Preliminary List of Electors.

“As at this time, I am not aware of other parties expressing concerns about the PLE,” he said.

The DCEO noted that it is within the right of any political party to express concerns pertaining to any aspect of GECOM’s work; and that, correspondingly, it is GECOM’s responsibility to respond appropriately.

Notwithstanding this position, he stressed that GECOM stands by the accuracy of the PLE, considering the names on the PLE were extracted from the accurate National Register of Registrants (NRR).

“The Guyana Elections Commission is convinced that every person on the National Register of Registrants, from which the names for the PLE are taken, is a bona fide registrant. Accordingly, we stand by the accuracy of the PLE,” Persaud said.

Persaud pointed out that, in the 2008 house-to-house registration, persons were registered at their homes with the participation of scrutineers from the governing and joint opposition political parties in Parliament. Thereafter, scrutineers were involved in the registration of persons in each consecutive cycle of Continuous Registration.

Further, he pointed out that each registration transaction goes through a series of checks before being accepted and committed to the National Register of Registrants.

Persaud said that if any political party is dissatisfied with the Official List of Electors to be produced after the Claims and Objections period is over, GECOM would be more than willing to address those concerns to the satisfaction of all concerned.

(By Vanessa Narine)