WITHOUT THE GENERAL REGISTRAR’S OFFICE (GRO) GETTING ITS ACT TOGETHER, ELECTIONS WILL NOT BE FREE AND FAIR

The People’s National Congress Reform has noted the recent removal of Raymon Cummings from the position of Registrar of Births and Deaths, albeit under the guise of some form of leave. His presence in that position represented the politicization of yet another office that must be independent and professional in its operation. Clearly, Mr. Cummings’ presence was designed to give a PPP political hack a job and for the manipulation of the issuance of birth certificates and the facilitation of corruption. His presence resulted in the politicization of the office and the undermining of the system as was evident by the deterioration of the quality of the service and outputs of the Office.

His removal, though welcomed, is insufficient since the system has been undermined by the very legislation (the Registration of the Births and Deaths (Amendment) Act No. 9 of 2021) that the PPP regime rushed through the Parliament to enable the issuance of birth certificates at their whims and fancies. What is most egregious is the issuance of birth certificates to foreigners with the hope of further padding the Voters List to facilitate PPP rigging.

While we must abide by international conventions in the treatment of refugees, the PPP needs to put our national interest first and end the willy-nilly issuance of birth certificates to foreigners. The PPP must recognize that there is a territorial controversy with Venezuela and not jeopardise Guyana’s national interest for narrow partisan political gains. The PPP is incompetent, corrupt and divisive and is now placing its patriotism in question.

By contending that the indigenous peoples have centuries of association with Guyana and, consequently, a birth right to Guyanese citizenship outside of the constitutional framework of lineage and place of birth, Bharrat Jagdeo is publicly and ineptly contending that he will sell our birth right for political power.

He is the oligarch of the PPP regime that fingered the corrupted system for the administration of Powers-of-Attorney. They claim that they sought to tighten-up the system to reduce abuse. Unfortunately, at the same time they have created a lax system for the issuance of birth certificates by empowering the said officials whose corruption they sought to curtail through legislative action.

It is both paradoxical and ironic that those curtailed in one instance are empowered in another, to perpetrate corrupt practices in another instance, a practice that is manifestly evident by the issuance of birth certificates to scores who can only qualify for refugee status.