…voters’ list expires in April

AMID the political furore over the integrity of the voters’ list, the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) on Friday announced that it would take them some nine months to conduct a fresh round of house-to-house registration.

The A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition has been demanding that house-to-house registration be conducted before general and regional elections are held; but while the commission had budgeted for national registration this year, its plans were shifted following the vote of no-confidence against the government in the National Assembly, last December; such a motion gave rise to early elections. Government has since challenged the validity of the vote.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Roxanne Myers, said the ‘nine months’ was based on the advice of the technical personnel within the elections secretariat. Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield, said that should the current Official List of Electors (OLE) expire on April 30, 2019, without elections being held, there would be a need for a new Official List of Electors. Lowenfield said that, given the current circumstances, the secretariat had advised the commission that a new list could be generated through a mechanism of a ‘Claims-and-Objections’ exercise.

“The duration of that exercise will be determined by the commission, so should the list expire, the commission will advise that the claims and objections be done where the old list will be used as the preliminary list as we move towards a new Official List of Electors,” Lowenfield explained, while fielding questions from reporters.

He said while house-to-house registration could be conducted for the purpose of the pending elections, the secretariat had recommended that the claims-and- objection exercise be done in the interim. “The secretariat recommended to the commission that we do a claims and objection for the duration of 28 days, that is, registration for a 28-day period with a seven-day objection period,” he explained.

The APNU+AFC coalition has been contending that the list, as it is, is bloated with dead persons, while eligible young people may be disenfranchised. It was noted, however, that the claims-and-objections period would result in the striking off of dead persons from the list.

The chief elections officer explained that if the current OLE is used, persons included on the National Register of Registrants (NRR), who were not 18 by November 1, 2018, would not be listed to vote. However, he noted that if a new list is generated, it would see the inclusion of persons who recently turned 18 or turned 18 during compilation of the list.
Lowenfield made it clear, however, that it is the commission who will decide whether house-to-house registration is conducted, or whether the claims-and- objections exercise will be conducted to generate a new list.

Public Security Minister and Chairman of the Alliance For Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, who joined picketers on Thursday, said he believes that national registration is a necessary process that guarantees all eligible Guyanese their right to vote. According to Ramjattan, if the old List of Electors is used for the upcoming elections, thousands of young people, who have not registered but are eligible to vote, will be disenfranchised.

He said too that thousands of Guyanese have relocated to various sections of the country, but have not registered in the areas that they now live. “A lot of people have shifted, say from Port Mourant to Parfaite Harmonie, and they must be allowed to vote at Parfaite Harmonie instead of Port Mourant,” he posited.

Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan said that the old List of Electors was unacceptable. “We cannot have an acceptable list for the conduct and the holding of general and regional elections in the absence of house-to-house registration,” Minister Bulkan said. National registration was last conducted in 2008 –- some 10 years ago.

“The current Official List of Electors, [according to] my understanding, is, in the vicinity of about 600,000 names in a population of approximately 750,000. The list is bloated! We cannot have an acceptable election with the current list being used as the basis,” Minister Bulkan said while maintaining that house- to-house registration is a prerequisite.
Asked what makes the current list invalid when it was months ago used for the holding of Local Government Elections, Minister Bulkan, in response, said the two elections are significantly different.

“Local Government Elections and General Elections are two different animals. The lists used for Local Government Elections are individual lists for each of the Local Democratic Organs. What we are heading towards is a general election to determine who will be the next president of Guyana. We can’t go with this list, this list is way too bloated,” he contended, while holding strong to the coalition’s position.

Minister Bulkan is of the opinion that facilitation of “Claims and Objections” alone would not be sufficient to cleanse the list of dead people. However, he, like Ramjattan, accepted that the final decision on the conduct of national registration lies with the elections body.