— House-to-House still ongoing, was not scrapped, says PM

By Navendra Seoraj

PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo has urged persons not to panic and be confused by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)’s decision to shorten the time for the ongoing House-to-House registration exercise, as the commission is doing its work to produce a clean voters’ list.

“Do not panic, do not be confused, the commission is doing its work to produce a clean voters’ list… people who are peddling to you that the registration is scrapped, it is a lie… House-to-House has not come to an end,” said Nagamootoo, speaking to residents of La Parfaite Harmonie at a Government Outreach, on Wednesday.

At its statutory meeting on Tuesday, the Elections Commission took a decision to shorten the period initially designated for the conduct of house-to-house registration. As such, the exercise, which commenced on July 20, 2019, will come to a close on August 31 instead of October 20, 2019.

He told residents of the community that they still have four more days to register on the House-to-House basis. Persons will either have the opportunity to register once enumerators visit their homes or they can visit a registration centre closest to them.
The prime minister believes that this is a time for all “serious Guyanese” to come forward and say that they want to get their names registered.

Up to this point, 300,000 persons, age 14 years and older have registered, something which Prime Minister Nagamootoo said is fantastic.
“It shows that people did not listen to the call for a boycott, though some were persuaded not to register,” he said, adding that the information gathered from the national registration exercise will not be wasted.

GECOM has decided to merge the over 300,000 fresh registrants with the existing National Register of Registrants (NRR) database.

After merging the data with the NRR, Nagamootoo said GECOM will start a process of extracting, from the register, all persons 18 years old and up.
“Now you would have a new preliminary voters’ list and they said there will be an extended period for citizens to make claims and objections.

GET REGISTERED
“If your name is not on the register, you have time to get registered… if it is still not on the register, there are registration centres and if your name is not on the preliminary voters’ list, you will make a claim,” said the prime minister.

Similarly, persons will be able to make objections once they see someone whose name is not supposed to be there, on the list.

According to Prime Minister Nagamootoo, once someone has died, their name has to be removed from the list and if someone migrated several years ago, they are not supposed to be on the list.

Although the house-to-house process was validated by the acting Chief Justice, Roxane George-Wiltshire, she had ruled that it would be unlawful or unconstitutional to remove the names of persons who are already on the List of Registrants and who were not, or have not been, or are not registered in the current exercise with a consequence of non-inclusion on the list of electors.

Justice George-Wiltshire had explained that persons could only be removed from the list if they are deceased or disqualified pursuant to Article 159. In that judgement, she also ruled that residency, in the case of Guyanese, was not a requirement under the laws.

Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, however, argued that the acting chief justice erred when she ruled that it would be unconstitutional to remove persons from the National Register of Registrants if they fail to register during this cycle of house-to-house registration. He laid out 16 grounds as he appealed, in part, the judgement on house-to-house registration. A date for that case has not been set.

“We are not dealing with phantom names… you’re dealing with real people… we want elections soon and early but it must be clean and fair with a clean voters’ list… we cannot go into elections with a list of people who have died, have fake names or fake ID cards,” said Prime Minister Nagamootoo.

According to GECOM, it will then move to ensure that all arrangements for the publication of a credible Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) are in place before the commencement of an extensive Claims and Objections (C&O) exercise.

After completing the necessary process, GECOM will inform President David Granger that they are ready and prepared for elections, then the President will announce a date for elections and dissolve Parliament.

In the August 14 High Court judgement, the acting chief justice ruled that the ongoing House-to-House registration being undertaken by GECOM is within the confines of the Constitution, and is therefore legal.

Justice George-Wiltshire ruled that the Constitution and the Laws of Guyana provide for the conduct of House-to-House registration as a form of verification – a position that was argued by both the government and GECOM.

The countrywide House-to-House exercise was conducted in keeping with a decision of the commission on February 19, 2019, and in accordance with Order No. 25 of 2019, dated June 11, 2019. The exercise was scheduled to end on October 20, but, according to GECOM, Order 25 of 2019 published in the Official Gazette should be amended for the exercise to conclude on August 31, 2019.