…gov’t supporters demand fresh registration ahead of elections

IN a nationwide protest on Friday, supporters of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government demanded that house-to-house registration be conducted ahead of General and Regional Elections.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is in the process of preparing for house-to-house registration. However, with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling that the no-confidence motion against the government is valid, the opposition is now demanding that the registration process be halted, and elections held in three months. But this is not a proposition that supporters of the President David Granger Administration is willing to accept.

At the junction of Avenue of the Republic and Lamaha Street, a short distance from GECOM’s Headquarters in Georgetown, scores of supporters held a peaceful demonstration, demanding that house-to-house registration be conducted before General Elections.

“House-to-house registration is a must! House-to-house registration is a must! Our youths must vote,” they chanted peacefully – majority, dressed in the colours of the coalition. With the Official List of Electors having been expired on April 30, the government supporters are of the view that only house-to-house Registration, at this stage, could produce a credible list for the conduct of credible elections.

Varune Mahadeo, a coalition supporter, said failure to conduct house-to-house registration would be to suppress and disenfranchise thousands of young people, whose names are not, on the now expired, Official List of Electors. He therefore rubbished the suggestion that elections could be held using the expired list, once there is a period of claims and objection.
Mahadeo, who was heard chanting, “Our youths, must vote,” said the government is not afraid to face the electorate but simply wants a process that is credible, free and fair. “Once we have new registration, then we could have an election. We are not running from the fact that an election has to be held,” he told the Guyana Chronicle.

Alliance For Change Executive Member and Member of Parliament, Michael Carrington, was among supporters demanding a process that would result in credible elections. “I have no problem with the declaration of the CCJ, but I would like to see young people given a chance to vote and all those dead people off the list,” Carrington said. Reports suggest that there are approximately 200,000 dead people on the now-expired Official List of Electors.
The Parliamentarian said that while Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, is calling for a halt to house-to-house registration, such a move would disenfranchise thousands of young people, while leaving on the list, the names of thousands of dead people.

The Elections Commission has in place a central register of all residents of Guyana entitled to vote, in addition to persons age 14 and above. A preliminary list of electors is extracted from the central register taking into account all persons 18 years and older.

However, MP Carrington said while registered persons can be added to the Electors’ List upon attaining the age of 18, many young people have never been registered. Using his daughter as an example, Carrington said she once went to get registered and was told that registration was not being done at that time. The young lady, who resides on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, has never registered since.

“If we have thousands of persons not registered, we need to have them registered before the elections,” he maintained.

The MP said there is no reason why GECOM should halt the process of house-to-house registration now, when it has already been initiated using funds approved by the National Assembly. Added to that, he said elections cannot be conducted using an expired list.
“The list expired since in April, and legally, if the list is expired, you are supposed to have new registration done. So we are not asking for nothing else, we are asking for what we had voted in Parliament for, in terms of passing monies for registration, and for us to have a new list,” the parliamentarian explained.

This, he told reporters, is no delay tactic by the government and its supporters, explaining that since 2018, the National Assembly approved over $3B for the Elections Commission to facilitate house-to-house registration. National Registration was last conducted in 2008 – some 10 years ago.

Brittany Eversley told reporters that GECOM would be committing “elections fraud” if it fails to conduct National Registration. Eversley said the Voters’ List is outdated, and with thousands of dead people on it, it creates room for the elections to be rigged.

Former Deputy Mayor and Executive Member of the AFC, Sherod Duncan, told reporters that this new round of national registration will ensure that all eligible persons are given the opportunity to get registered, enabling them to vote whenever the elections are held.

“The list that expired on April 30 that list was not credible in the first place, and we cannot go to the polls with it. We need a new list to reflect all Guyanese who are eligible. We need the list to be transparent and clean, we need all the dead folks off the list, and so it needs to be sanitised,” Cynthia Rutherford said as she added her voice to the cause.

Minister of State, Dawn Hastings-Williams told reporters that there is no Voters’ List in place, and elections cannot be held without it. “We have decided as a government, there must be credible house-to-house registration in order to have credible elections. We do not have a Voters’ List, it was expired since April, and we all know that the list is corrupted,” Minister Hastings-Williams said as she joined in on the peaceful protest. The Minister of State made it clear that government is not in support of elections using an expired list.
On Monday, the CCJ is expected to make a number of consequential orders pertaining to the appointment of a new chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, and the vote of no-confidence against the government, but the State Minister said it is not for the CCJ to direct the affairs of this country.

“CCJ cannot rule. Guyana has its own institution. Guyana is an independent country with its own independent laws,” the State Minister said. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Karen Cummings told reporters that she met with the European Union (EU) and will be meeting with other members of the Diplomatic Community to explain the reason behind government’s call for house-to-house registration.

Attorney-at-Law, James Bond, said government has “right a lot of wrongs” and has made tremendous progress over the past four years. “We feel if we allow a list that is so bloated to tarnish and hamper that progress that we have been able to achieve, then we would do the Guyanese people a disservice,” Bond told reporters. He said in order for government to fulfil its mandate, a credible list must be in place.

The attorney said the opposition leader must be cognisant of the fact that no one can dictate to GECOM how it ought to conduct its operations. GECOM, he reiterated, approved the conduct of house-to-house registration, and must be allowed to carry out its functions.
“GECOM is a constitution agency. GECOM has every power and right under the Constitution to decide how they proceed and if they say look we need three months, four months, six months, nobody could come and tell them, they need one month or two months,” he explained. As an attorney, Bond said he does not believe that the CCJ will dictate when elections should be held.

Bond told reporters that government has learnt from the two recent land mark cases, and have not lost in no way.

“That’s a word you never use, lose. How could you say we have lost cases in the CCJ when the position is clearer? Knowledge is power, and learning is power….and we have learnt now that this is how we must do things, do things this way, do things that way, and we have learnt as a country,” Bond said.

He said Guyana won, and it is now on the right track. Alluding to recent international reports, Bond said the country is making significant process and the world is taking note.
“The only people are crying out are those disgruntled few at Freedom House. CFATF is happy with us. The UN is happy with us. The (anti) Trafficking in Persons (organisations), they are saying never before we have seen so many successes in this country, the DEA is happy with us…the only people [who are not happy], [are] them down at Robb Street,” Bond told reporters.

Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine, was among the City Officials who joined with the government supporters to call for house-to-house registration.