PPP writes to GECOM for registration extension

…finds some 8,000 transfers — Rohee
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has urged the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to ensure that the sixth Cycle of Continuous Registration which ended on June 18, last, should be extended. This would facilitate those potential voters who have changed addresses to have a chance to complete the registration process.
They need to have their registration transferred.
General Secretary (GS) of the PPP, Clement Rohee, said that the PPP last Friday wrote to the GECOM seeking an extension to the sixth Cycle of Continuous Registration which concluded on Saturday June 21, 2014, because they were concerned that “there may be more than 8,000 transfers yet to be done, owing to the fact that there are numerous New Housing Schemes in all the Coastal Regions in Guyana and also in the hinterland, such as in Region Nine.”
During the last five cycles of Registration, transfers were not done. However, this was accommodated in the sixth Cycle of Registration, but GECOM was unable to accommodate everyone on the list in the area in which he or she currently resides, Rohee said.
Using information from GECOM, he said that the sixth Cycle of Continuous Registration found that there were13, 023 new registrants (of whom 11,544 have already been verified), 1,662 transfers (owing to issues relating to change of address, etc.) and 2,347 corrections (owing to change /correction to existing registration information) were done.
The party provided a breakdown of the number of estimated transfers throughout the 10 Administrative Regions totaling, 8,389 persons who have not been able to register because they have relocated mostly to new Housing Schemes established in Regions Three, Four, Five and Six.
Rohee said that the party, in a letter to GECOM dated April 14, 2014, proposed that mobile units be set up in the new housing schemes to have persons who were transferred, registered.
However, the indications are that the “GECOM public relations was poor and only a few persons were aware. The time when the mobile units were in the schemes many persons were at work. Further, transfers were not part of previous Cycle; hence it’s a new initiative which should have had the support of wider publicity,” said Rohee.
When questioned if the 8,000 transferred persons were supporters of the PPP, Rohee would only say that they are potential voters.
Rohee, during a press briefing at Freedom House, said that “no one should be disenfranchised so that when elections are called, whether Local Government or General and Regional Elections, everyone eligible to participate should be able to exercise his/her franchise.”