THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will, on Monday, commence claims and objections regarding entries on the Preliminary List of Voters (PLVs) for each of Guyana’s nine municipalities and 62 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs). The claims aspect of this exercise will end on December 6, and the objections aspect on December 13.
GECOM explained that the purpose of the exercise is to produce the respective Register of Voters to be used for the conduct of Local Government Elections (LGE) under the new system for those elections.

It said the PLVs have been posted at prominent locations in all of the constituencies in every municipality and NDC.
Anyone who will be 18 years old or over by February 29, 2016, and is a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, or naturalisation; or is a citizen from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more, is eligible to register to vote at the upcoming Local Government Elections, provided that he/she resides in a municipality or NDC.

Accordingly, GECOM said that any person who would be eligible to register during this exercise could apply for registration if his/her name is not on the relevant PLV; or can apply for a change of name if he/she has changed his/her name since he/she was last registered; or apply for a correction if his/her information on the PLV is incorrect; or apply for a transfer if he/she is listed at an address where he/she no longer lives.

The commission has said that failure of any eligible person to apply for a transfer can result in him/her not being allowed to vote in the municipality, NDC and constituency where he/she now resides. This is especially applicable to persons who would have relocated from one municipality/NDC/constituency to another.

GECOM has said that persons must be in possession of the relevant source documents as may be necessary to conduct any of the earlier mentioned transactions:

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS
These documents are: (1) original birth certificate or a valid Guyana passport for persons applying for registration;

(2) Original birth certificate/valid passport and the birth certificate of one parent in the case of application for registration by persons who are Guyanese by descent;

(3) Original naturalisation certificate issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and original birth certificate/valid passport in the case of persons seeking to become registered by virtue of having acquired Guyanese citizenship via naturalisation;

(4) Original marriage certificate (and original birth certificate) in the case of a name changed by marriage.  Married women in possession of valid Guyana passports with their husbands’ surnames do not need to provide marriage certificates;

(5) Original deed poll and original birth certificate in the case of a name changed by deed poll; and

(6) Original birth certificate/valid passport/marriage certificate/deed poll/naturalisation certificate as may be necessary to substantiate claims for corrections.

Baptismal certificates; expired passports; photocopies of relevant documents; or letters from priests, elders, headmasters, village captains/toshaos and justices of the peace, and existing ID Cards will not be acceptable as source documents for registration, GECOM says.

The commission explained that persons who do not meet the above listed criteria are not eligible to vote at the upcoming Local Government Elections, and therefore could be objected to if they are listed in the PLV.

GECOM has pointed out that objections to the presence of the name of anyone in the PLV who does not meet the eligibility requirements to vote at the upcoming Local Government Elections could be made only by (i) accredited scrutineers of political parties, provided they have monitoring responsibilities for the municipality/NDC/constituency in which the person being objected to is listed, and (ii) an elector who is listed in the same PLV as the person being objected to.
GECOM says it has established claims and objections offices at strategic locations within all of the municipalities and NDCs, and is advising anyone who is desirous of conducting any of the above transactions to visit the claims and objections office that is responsible for his area of residence.

All claims and objections offices will be open on Mondays to Fridays from 15:30 hrs to 19:00 hrs; and on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 10:00 hrs to 14:00 hrs.