THE placement of offices identified by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the Claims and Objections period, which started last Monday, reflect a “bias and lack of objectivity” by the Commission.

This is according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee, who added that there is a reduced number of registration offices within large communities even though there is an overall increase in registration centres countrywide.
“For instance, three offices will operate in a small cluster in the Timehri/Soesdyke area, while the next office is as far as Grove. Another office is in Mocha but none for Little Diamond/Herstelling/ Providence where the voting population is in excess of five times that of Mocha. Further, there are 13 offices in South Georgetown, while there are only four offices in North Georgetown,” Rohee said.

He noted that compounding the issue is the uncoordinated visits to communities, particularly in the Hinterland region, by GECOM’s mobile units.
“Time and again, the Party had voiced concern over the use of mobile units during these periods…convenient days and times to residents must be a priority for GECOM when preparing schedules for outreaches,” Rohee said.
The PPP General Secretary expressed the hope that these concerns will be addressed by GECOM in a timely manner so as to pave the way for free and fair elections and free from fear.
“The Party is confident that should these concerns be addressed in an efficient and effective manner the election results will be accepted by all Guyanese,” he said.

CONCERNS ADDRESSED
Meanwhile, GECOM’s Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DECO), Vishnu Persaud, has since responded to queries regarding Rohee’s concerns.
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, he explained that GECOM established eight temporary offices on the East Bank of Demerara to supplement the permanent Registration Office at Diamond, the permanent Registration Sub-Office at Soesdyke and mobile operations at other locations.
Added to that, two temporary Claims and Objections Offices have been established, complementing the Commission’s main office at Diamond, to provide registration services to the villages of Grove and Diamond, which represents approximately one-third of the electorate on the East Bank of Demerara.
Persaud said, “There were successive cycles of Continuous Registration, and Claims and Objections exercises, the latter having been done in 2014, subsequent to the 2011 General and Regional Elections. These exercises showed a progressive decline in the number of persons applying for registration transactions
“In the Claims and Objections exercises that were conducted in preparation for the 2006 and 2011 General and Regional Elections, persons residing between the villages of Herstelling and Little

Diamond preferred to visit the permanent Registration Office at Diamond, instead of the temporary Claims and Objections Office at Covent Garden Secondary School, because of the distance from the main road they had to traverse after disembarking public transport. This is reflected in the low number of transactions done at that the Covent Garden Office.”
In respect of the claim that the next office after the cluster of three offices in the Timehri/Soesdyke area is at Grove, the DECO stated that it must be emphasised that “we have established Claims and Objections Offices at Supply and Friendship, i.e. areas that are progressively expanding in population, viz. Friendship, Supply and Land of Canaan.
“Little Diamond is not far removed from the permanent Diamond Registration Office,” he said.
Persaud stated too that the voting population of Mocha is more than half of all the villages between Herstelling and Little Diamond combined.
“Additionally, in consideration of the new housing development currently ongoing in Herstelling, Ramsburg, Providence etc., the temporary Claims and Objections Office in Mocha will be more easily accessible to those persons residing there as against one on the main road at Providence,” he said.
Additionally, GECOM’s Chairman, Dr Steve Surujbally, in an invited comment, told the Guyana Chronicle that he is in receipt of a letter outlining the PPP’s most recent concerns and an official response will be forwarded to the Party’s General Secretary.
In a prior comment, the GECOM Chairman assured that the concerns of political parties, major stakeholders in the electoral process, will be addressed once it is communicated in writing to the Commission.

(By Vanessa Narine)