GECOM agrees to re-open registration next Monday
-for 13 days only
THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday announced its willingness to accommodate a new round of Claims and Objections, with four of its six commissioners voting in favour. The exercise will be reopened on July 25 for a duration of 13 days, with the Claims’ aspect running for ten days. The constitutional due date of the elections will therefore not be hindered.
“I take this opportunity to invite all of the electors who are now in possession of their source documents to make every effort to become registered…I also invite all political parties to make full use of this opportunity to enthuse their constituents to get registered during the exercise,” GECOM’s Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally urged at a press conference yesterday.
Surujbally reported that information from political parties and the Commission’s own research point to the existence of thousands of persons who received their birth certificates after the 2011 ‘Claims and Objections’ exercise had ended on June 9, 2011.
Government has assured that adequate funds would be made available to conduct the exercise, which would provide a window of opportunity for bona fide citizens to become registered, and be guaranteed their constitutional right to vote. “It would only be logical and correct to conclude that we should commence a new Claims and Objections exercise,” Surujbally said.
The exercise will involve the re-establishment of temporary offices targeting the entire country; the re-hiring of temporary staff to be posted at the various offices; the deployment of Mobile Registration Units to far-flung hinterland and riverine communities; the accreditation of scrutineers to monitor the registration process; and the advertisement of the conduct of the exercise.
The registration process will be no different from that which obtained during the earlier ‘Claims and Objections’ period, in that persons must present either their original birth certificates or valid passports upon presenting themselves to be registered. Their residency status will be verified by visits to their given addresses, and all fingerprints captured during the re-opened exercise will be cross-matched with those already in GECOM’s possession to check for multiple registration.
Provision will be made for scrutineers to monitor the entire registration process at the field level throughout the country, and the particulars of all  the newly-registered persons will be posted in Supplementary Lists for public scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the only two dissenting voices were those of the PNCR’s Vincent Alexander and Charles Corbin, the former offering that their actions in no way suggested there was division among the Commissioners, but was rather an exercise of their democratic right.
Alexander gave as the reason he voted against the decision the Commission’s earlier failure to respond positively to a request by all the opposition parties in Parliament to extend the period of Claims and Objections.
“Bearing in mind that the Guyanese people had, from 2008 to 2011, an opportunity to register, one cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, claim that GECOM had disenfranchised people,” Alexander said.
He also charged that since there was no new evidence before the Commission, there was therefore no basis to support a re-opening. “The decision may result in the elections being pushed back,” he said, despite all assurances to the contrary from GECOM’s Chairman. 
Commissioner Robert Williams said he voted in favour because he was convinced the re-opening will not prevent the elections from being held within the constitutional date of December 28, and that assurances were given that the legal ramifications will be tended to. “I feel that the 13 days are adequate time, and I say from now that my vote for a further extension will not be there,” Williams remarked. 
Commissioner Corbin, meanwhile, said the debts of GECOM to be paid off must be considered, and that more funds are being committed while these debts are not yet met. “The basis of the decision implicit in it is the probability that it can become cyclical,” he proffered.
Also present at the press briefing were Chief Elections Officer, Mr. Gocool Boodhoo and Commissioners Mahmood Shah and Keshav Mangal.