GECOM, political parties urge citizens to get registered
– as claims exercise wraps up

TODAY is the final day for citizens across Guyana to lay claims to be included on the Official List of Electors (OLEs) for the coming general and regional elections;leaders within political parties as well as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have been urging citizens not to miss their last chance.

“That responsibility is on you. Don’t take it lightly. Elections are serious business,” Director of Sport Christopher Jones said over the weekend.

“The responsibility is on the people to ensure that you go to the registration centres; to ensure that your names are on the list; to ensure that names are correctly spelt; the information in terms of your address is correct, so that you are eligible to vote.”

Jones stated that he placed importance on spreading the word because history has taught him that when the elections campaign period begins, most Guyanese get very excited but some only realise then that they missed the critical registration period.

He stated: “You might be looking at March 2, 2020 as months away and you got time and ‘all I gon do is go and vote’ but, unless you do what is absolutely necessary now –you have up to Monday–to ensure that you register, to ensure that you go to the GECOM offices and search for your names [you will be left out].”

To determine whether they are on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLEs), citizens can check for their names at the link presented on GECOM’s website or manually by visiting GECOM’s permanent and temporary offices countrywide.

Today these offices will be open from 08:00hrs to 12:00hrs and 13:00hrs to 19:00hrs.

Persons have reported that the transaction takes between six to 10 minutes, thanks to numerous staff present at the location to assist and their use of the computer to speed-up the process.

Also encouraging persons to get registered were representatives of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).

Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Nigel Dharamlall stated that its party has mobilised resources to enable persons within certain villages to get to the various GECOM offices to get registered.

“We would like to encourage all and sundry across Regions Five and Six especially — as we’re in Berbice — and for you also to take the message to your families and friends and colleagues across this country…let us go out and get registered. We cannot be apathetic, we cannot be complacent, we need to get on the voters list to cast our votes on elections day,” he said on the programme, In Perspective.

Meanwhile, Jones has also encouraged persons to look out for their friends and families by checking for their names on the list and, if not seen, encouraging them to utilise the last day.

The benefits of getting registered go beyond voting in the coming elections as, with the eventual issuance of new Identification (ID) cards, persons will be able to obtain old age pensions; secure a driver’s licence or a loan; apply for a passport; obtain police clearance; transact business at the bank or post office; collect national insurance benefits and more.

The Claims and Objections (C&O) exercise began on October 1, 2019. As of Sunday, October 29, 2019, over 17,000 transactions had been conducted thus far. There have been over 3,900 new registrations, more than 9,500 transfers, over 1,600 changes or corrections, over 1,600 replacements and 32 objections.

The commission has stated that GECOM officials are not visiting homes and citizens who come into contact with persons offering to conduct transactions as a part of the C&O exercise should not provide any personal information and should report same.

Meanwhile, citizens have until November 11, 2019 to make objections about the removal of names.