…says merger of new data with NRR will “further contaminate” it

Pull quote
“We reiterate the position of the PPP, which is that the planned merger of data from the house-to-house registration will not improve the quality or ‘credibility’ of the database – rather it will further contaminate the National Register of Registrants and cause further delays in the holding of Elections,”
PPP says

Months after denying that the voters’ list was bloated the Peoples Progressive Party on Tuesday acknowledged that the list was contaminated and said that any merger of the data gathered from the ongoing house-to-house registration will further contaminate it.
In a statement reacting to the Guyana Elections Commission announcement that it was shortening the period for house-to-house registration, the PPP complained bitterly as it launched a vicious attack on GECOM. Though claiming that it welcomes the decision to discontinue House-to-House Registration, the PPP lashed out at the Elections Commission, accusing it of misleading the public. “…The PPP notes several misleading positions that were communicated to the Guyanese people via a press statement issued by GECOM – positions that seem intent on confusing the Guyanese electorate. First, the headline of the press statement – ‘Data garnered from House-to-House Registration will be merged with existing National Register of Registrants Database’ – leaves more unanswered questions. What data exactly is being merged with the National Register of Registrants? Is it the entire 270,000-plus persons that GECOM claimed to have registered, including persons who were re-registered? If it is only the new registrants, why embark on this process, which will take several months to be completed, when it could easily be done in a Claims and Objections period,” PPP said.

It also accused the Commission of distorting the ruling of acting Chief Justice. In its statement GECOM said: “Based on the ruling of the Chief Justice on 14th August 2019 that House-to-House Registration is not unlawful and is constitutional, the data garnered from that registration exercise must be merged with the existing National Register of Registrants Database,” but PPP said not clear directive was given.

“This is an attempt to distort the ruling of the High Court. Nowhere in the ruling of the Chief Justice did she direct any such merger of data garnered from the house-to-house registration with the National Register of Registrants,” it contended.

“The author of the GECOM press statement seems clearly confused on the process that must be followed to arrive at an Official List of Electors – saying that there will be Claims and Objections Exercise before a Preliminary List of Electors is produced. In accordance with practice and law, Claims and Objections must be preceded by the publication of a Preliminary List of Electors,” it said.

However, the Elections Commission subsequently clarified that “a credible Preliminary List of Electors (PLE)” will be compiled before the commencement of an extensive Claims and Objections (C&O) exercise.

The PPP, nonetheless, is maintaining that the planned merger of data from the national registration exercise with the National Register will not improve the quality or ‘credibility’ of the database. According to the PPP, the merger will contaminate further contaminate the National Register of Registrants and cause further delays in the holding of Elections. “The Party urges GECOM to move decisively by immediately launching a Claims and Objections exercise, which will allow those who are not on the National Register of Registrants and are eligible to be properly registered,” the PPP said. GECOM’s decision to cut short House-to-House Registration, for which almost $3B budgeted, is an attempt to facilitate early elections and to bring into full effect the consequences of the December 21 No-Confidence Motion.

Government has argued that the voters’ list was bloated and recently one of the main parties in the coalition, People National Congress Reform (PNC/R) said a voters list would be subject to “massive voter fraud” without house-to-house registration, and charged that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) was “living in fear” of a clean list and credible elections. The current list is said to contain the names of thousands of Guyanese who are either deceased or have migrated, while also disenfranchising younger Guyanese who would have since attained the age of 18 years, and are eligible to vote at elections, since the last list was compiled in 2012. “Irfaan Ali and the PPP want to force an election on a list that is not only expired, but also is bloated, with as many as 200,000 names of people who are not eligible. This makes the list susceptible to massive voter fraud. The list the PPP is insisting that we use blocks thousands of young Guyanese the opportunity to vote. This is a dishonest list that can lead to a dishonest outcome, and this is why the PPP is so desperate to use it,” charged Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, as he read a press statement by the PNCR at a recent news conference.