Process to remove deceased persons from NRR under review

– GECOM Chairman

THE procedures followed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are not etched in stone, according to the Commission’s Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally, who said concerns over the continued inclusion of deceased persons in the National Register of Registrants (NRR) is being addressed.

“It is not etched in stone that all of our manuals and components of our documents cannot be changed, we constantly review things,” he said at a news conference held yesterday at Cara Lodge, in Georgetown.
The GECOM Chairman noted that the names for the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) are generated from the NRR and as per the Commission’s procedures names are removed from the NRR only after the General Registrar’s Office (GRO) has forwarded authentic documentation indicating a death.

“Removing the deceased from the National Register of Registrants is not something you do flippantly,” he said, adding that from January 2008 to April 2014 a total of 12,404 names had been sent to GECOM and flagged as deceased; so are not included in the PLE.

Dr. Surujbally added that GECOM is engaged in reviewing this process. “We have had talks with the GRO on several occasions,” he said.

According to him, once the review is completed, the Commission expects to forward a proposal to the various stakeholders for input and approval.
He said, “Considerations when we review the policy can include establishing essential coordinates, which can be agreed upon by all, for example if only a lot number is missing from the data provided by the GRO, in the past, I’m sorry.

“…some of the Commissioners have said that at this stage when we have done so well we can possibly relax a bit, we can establish even margins of acceptable error, or we can proactively interact with the police, hospitals, and funeral parlours to ascertain a death.”

The Commission’s Chairman added that the current procedures employed to remove names of deceased persons from national electors’ lists are similar to what is done in most Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states.
He highlighted too that this issue was the subject of discussion at the last meeting of the Association of Caribbean Electoral Organisations (ACEO).
Dr. Surujbally said, “That topic was very much discussed and all participating EMBs (Election Management Bodies) recognised the problematic nature of the issue and agreed that you cannot willy-nilly remove people from the voters’ list.

“Nevertheless, even in situations where distrust is highly pronounced, it is possible to introduce criteria, which could remove names of people who are genuinely deceased, without actually having documentation from the GRO.”
According to him, he is also in talks with regional counterparts in addressing this issue.
“When we have everything we can draft regulations to anchor those proposals,” he concluded.

(By Vanessa Narine)

 

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