THE Guyana Elections Commission will, this weekend, publish the names of over 25,000 persons who have failed to uplift their National Identification Cards, having applied for same some 11 years ago.

The commission said the names will be published in the daily newspapers and the owners of the cards will have 10 days to show up and collect their cards. Failure to do so will result in them being struck off the Official List of Electors. Chairman of the commission, Justice (rtd) Claudette Singh, reinforced the decision when the body met for its statutory meeting on Tuesday, long standing commissioner of the electoral body, Vincent Alexander told reporters following the meeting.

He said the names will be published in the four national newspapers: The Guyana Chronicle, Stabroek News, Kaieteur News and Guyana Times. “We did explore the possibility of in fact dating when the person was registered in the publication but it starts from 2008 and comes forward [with the most recent being] to last year,” he told reporters outside of GECOM’s High Street, Georgetown office.

His colleague on the opposition, Sase Gunraj, however was not convinced, saying that he still has concerns about the move to publish the names and the removal of the persons who did not collect their ID cards. “Much to the disagreement of myself and colleagues, the Chairman is insisting on publishing the names of the persons who have not collected their identification cards. And what has now been made very clear is that persons who might have registered as late as last year or in the last claims and objections period before this current one, and did not collect their id card, they also stand at risk of being removed from the list for non-collection of those id cards”, Gunraj told reporters.

Last week the Guyana Chronicle reported that GECOM had sealed a decision that the 25,000 persons who were registered in 2008, but have not yet collected their Identification (ID) cards, will be given 21 days to do same or be struck off the Official List of Electors (OLE). The decision was made at the commission’s statutory meeting, following a proposal at its October 15, 2019 meeting for such to be done. “The Chair has ruled that persons who have not uplifted their identification cards, that their names will be published in the newspapers and they will be given 21 days within which to collect it and if they fail to respond to that, then they will be prevented from voting,” Commissioner Gunraj had said then.

Commissioner Charles Corbin said that notices will also be sent directly to addresses of these persons that GECOM has on record. At a previous meeting, Commissioner Vincent Alexander had explained, “It’s like an objection. So, the issue is not the ID card, the issue is that these persons, since 2008 and beyond 2008 have not, in any way, presented themselves to be present; to be known; to be alive; to be existing; to be resident. And, in calling them, writing to them gives us the opportunity to make a determination.”

Although he confirmed that efforts have been made in the past to contact these individuals who have still not verified their existence in the country, opposition-nominated commissioners have contested that the law does not stipulate that citizens need an ID card to vote and therefore the collection of these cards should be non-related. On the other hand, some commissioners believe that these persons might be part of a scheme by the opposition to rig the upcoming elections. “Why are they not collecting their ID cards…thousands of ID cards and the opposition is arguing for them to remain on the list,” a commissioner, who asked not be named, recently reasoned to the newspaper. Corbin had also informed the media that the names of these individuals will not be removed from the National Registrar of Registrants (NRR) stating, “It would only mean that if these persons exist they may miss this round of elections.”

GECOM chair last week had also thrown out a proposal for the names of persons, who did not participate in the house-to-house registration exercise but are on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE), be highlighted on the OLE. Corbin had told reporters last week that Justice Singh read from a prepared document which in essence, made it clear that “the verification process will not be proceeded with”. At a previous meeting, commissioners had explained that the highlighting of names on the March 2, 2020 OLE was intended to avoid multiple and substitute voting in the coming elections.

Alexander had explained that there would be no deletion of names and that the names are instead being highlighted as names which can be compromised during the voting process. “In so far as it related to the flagging of persons or the highlighting of names of persons who did not go to verify their data during this house-to-house period, the chair said that that was not necessary; that they will do no such thing,” Gunraj said. As he spoke with the media he also objected to what he described as the use of the house-to-house registration data as a PLE.