…distances itself from issue, says lack of source documents the deterring factor
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has once again spoken up about the number of unregistered persons and has distanced itself from the problem.
A release issued by the commission said “GECOM cannot be blamed for persons being unable to register, for the simple reason that the unregistered masses are not in possession of birth certificates”.
The GECOM statement said, “The Guyana Elections Commission recognized, during the conduct of the 2008 house-to-house registration exercise, that thousands of persons could not apply for the registration as provided for under the National Registration Act Chapter 19:08, because they were not in possession of their birth certificates.”
And the General Registrar’s Office, responsible for issuing birth certificates, has said there is no backlog of applications.
However, according to GECOM, the births of many persons were never registered.
The parliamentary political parties agreed that 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.
The political parties had also agreed that baptismal certificates, expired passports, photocopies of relevant documents or letters from priests, elders, head- teachers, village captains/toshaos and justices of the peace or existing ID Cards will not be acceptable as source documents for registration.
In this context, the commission maintains that it “cannot and must not be blamed” for persons not being able to apply for registration because they are not in issuance of the required source documents.
“It must be noted that while the commission recognises the right of every eligible person to be registered and vote at the upcoming General and Regional elections, GECOM cannot be involved in the registration of births and issuance of birth certificates,” the release said.
Additionally, according to their statement, GECOM pointed out that meetings have been held with the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee, and the General Registrar, Ms. Greta McDonald.

Parties’ Role

The statement pointed out that GECOM is discussing this concern with political parties in Parliament and has requested that the parties take steps to enthuse their constituents to take the necessary steps to register their births and acquire their respective birth certificates.
It added that prior to the commencement of the house-to-house registration process, the commission has “repeatedly” published notices encouraging persons to take the necessary steps to get their birth certificates.
“The objective behind these thrusts was to bring about a suitable solution, the result being the registration of the births of the concerned persons, so they could be issued birth certificates to be used to apply for registration,” the release said.
GECOM will be conducting the mandatory Claims and Objections exercise in preparation for the upcoming general elections; and during this, persons who are 18-years-old and over would be given the opportunity to apply for registration. Such persons must be in possession of their birth certificates or valid passports and other supporting documents, such as marriage certificates or deed polls, as might be necessary.
It is estimated that over 9,000 persons are eligible to be registered and placed on the voters’ list, but are unable to do so because they are not in possession of birth certificates or other source documents.
According to GECOM, an acceptable List of Electors forms the basis for the staging of elections.
The main objective of the preparation of the list of electors is to produce an acceptable Official List of Electors that contains the names of all eligible persons (i.e. persons who would attain the age of eighteen years by a stipulated date) who can vote in an election. Such list/s has to withstand public scrutiny in terms of the details of all electors being listed without duplication.
The National Register of Registrants (NRR) is the register of persons eighteen years and over, whose particulars, which are acquired during registration exercises, are represented on the Master Registration Data Base (MRDB). This register is required to be in a secure, distributable format for all stakeholders to peruse in the run-up to an election. The Preliminary Voters List (PVL) is produced from the MRDB.
The production of the Revised Voters’ List (RVL) involves the inclusion of new electors and the extraction of electors from the Preliminary Voters’ List. It is compulsory for each elector to have his/her photograph taken before his/her particulars are placed on the RVL. Corrections are subsequently made, where necessary, and verified by the Chief Elections Officer.
The Official List of Electors (OLE) contains the names of all registered voters in alphabetical order according to surname. An elector’s name must appear on the OLE in order for him/her to vote.