– more than 70,000 new ID Cards still uncollected
CHAIRMAN of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally has announced the commencement date for continuing registration in anticipation of General and Regional Elections constitutionally due in 2011.

Giving a very brief background to the house-to-house registration exercise that had been carried out in 2008, Surujbally described this phase as being successful in that the end product has been a National Register of Registrants (NRR) which had been commonly validated and accepted.
Speaking at a news conference in Georgetown last Friday, Surujbally  pointed out that the NRR had been further updated as a result of a claims and objection exercise carried out for the anticipated Local Government Elections that  did not occur.
He described the latter situation as unfortunate, since much monies had been expended, and GECOM had managed to prepare a sanitized list.

He, however, reiterated that  the important precursor activity of registering persons who meet the eligibility requirements for  voting criteria must now commence, making use of the time still available, so that they would be included in the Official List of Electors (OLE).
The success or failure of elections, Surujbally said, is interlinked with the completeness or accuracy of the OLE that must be produced from the NRR. He noted that this was the fundamental principle on which a unanimous decision was taken, with the all round support of the government and the parliamentary opposition political parties.

He said the commencement of the 2nd cycle continuation of registration will be from September 6, and will conclude on December 31 with a two-month claims and objections period.
This phase will be executed at the 27 GECOM offices in the 10 Administrative Regions.
Surujbally said there is current training for personnel to be temporarily employed at a further 107 locations, which will be established after this 2nd cycle has commenced. These locations will be publicized, he told reporters.

Persons are eligible for registration from 14 years, including those who attained such a milestone since the 2008 registration exercise and are Guyanese citizen by birth; descent; naturalization; and any Commonwealth citizen living in Guyana for one year or more.
Also, persons who would have changed addresses; effected change of name because of marriage; name change or correction; or incorrect data on their national ID cards will have to register.

Dr Surujbally warned that baptismal certificates, expired passports, and documents prepared by JPs, headmasters, Toshaos, etc, to be tendered in support of persons’ registration will not be accepted; underlining that this was a specific demand of all the political parties.
He further pointed out that it is in the interest of political parties to ensure that their constituents are registered, drawing attention to the civic duty and legal responsibility that such entails, even referring to Section 6 of the National Registration Act, Chap:19:08  which obligates all eligible persons to register, failing which they are liable to a fine/prison penalty.

He disclosed, too, that there are 70,828 ID cards still to be uplifted, and questioned how such a very high number of cards can still remain in his Commission’s possession when many of the persons concerned live in proximal distances to GECOM centres.

Surujbally also disclosed that the old identification cards will be decommissioned, and the public will be educated on this measure.

An elaborate public awareness campaign via infomercials, flyers, pamphlets, banners and billboards will educate the public on the required source documents and the hours of registration at all the GECOM centres.
Scrutineers, always a critical component of such an exercise, from all the parties, were slated to be appointed for training over the weekend. (GINA)