THE General Registrar’s Office (GRO) has said it has no backlog of applications but the large number of persons who could not apply for registration, either because they were not in possession of their birth certificates or their births were never registered, remains a pressing concern. Agreeing, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally said it is a real concern that needs to be addressed.
Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle, he maintained that registration is a job for the GRO and acknowledged that there are thousands of people who are without the most basic documentation.
GRO has 15 writers who are expected to write 100 of the certificates daily while the processing of them takes approximately four weeks.
Surujbally said he has informed the political parties that GECOM is aware of the thousands who would attain voting age but could not apply for registration because of the previously stated reasons and has also raised the matter at several other levels, including with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“To date, I only have a letter from the Minister of Home Affairs, explaining the registration process,” Surujbally said, noting that the parliamentary political parties agreed only original birth certificates and valid passports, along with supporting documents, such as marriage certificates and deed polls, would be accepted as source documents for registration.
He said the political parties had also agreed that baptismal certificates, expired passports, photocopies of relevant documents or letters from priests, elders, headmasters, Village Captains/Toshaos and Justices of the Peace (JPs) or existing identification (ID) Cards will not be acceptable as source documents for registration.        
Another worry the different stakeholders have is over the number of uncollected ID Cards, which GECOM put at more than 50,000.
GECOM is moving to decommission all ID cards that were issued prior to the 2008 house-to-house registration exercise and expected to organise consecutive interactive sessions with all of the known political parties to update/advise them on the requirements for contesting the elections.