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OFFICIALS at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) say the mechanisms in place at the commission and the commitment of employees are what led to the uncovering of several multiple registrations.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle via telephone on Tuesday, Public Relations Officer of GECOM, Vishnu Persaud, said, “It is because of the checks and balances that GECOM has in place in terms of checking for double registrations, that we determined that there were cases of multiple registration”
According to Persaud, these systems are in place to ensure that a clean voters list is produced.
“The checks and balances are in place to contribute largely to the integrity of the National Register of Registrants, and the voters list to be produced therefrom.”
Persaud noted, “GECOM has methodology to deal with cases of multi-registration, to ensure that no person is listed more than once in the Official List of Electors or the National Register of Registrants”
He observed that these systems are in place to ensure that there is transparency on the part of GECOM.
The commission, in a statement on Monday, said it uncovered “multiple registrations” during the Claims and Objections exercises.
“GECOM has established the occurrence of multiple registrations. This was determined through the electronic cross-matching of the fingerprints of every new applicant for registration against the fingerprints of existing registrants who are listed in the national Register of Registrants (NRR),” GECOM said in a statement.
It said, “Every case of multiple registration was investigated”, and this revealed that some of the cases of multiple registrations were unintentional, while others were found to have been committed deliberately.
“Accordingly, GECOM would apply the methodology for treating with multiple registrations towards ensuring that no person is listed more than once in the NRR,” GECOM said, adding that the “cases of deliberate multiple registrations will be handed over to the police for investigation and possible prosecution, and the names and addresses of the persons involved will be published in the print media”.
GECOM said that it is currently engaged with work associated with the finalisation and printing of the Revised List of Electors (RLE), as a sequel to the recently concluded Claims and Objections Exercise for the upcoming elections.

According to Persaud, the commission will remain vigilant and will ensure a list of electors is produced that cannot be questioned by anyone.
GECOM is still to hand over the instances of multiple registration to the police.