– as commission ramps up work to meet August 31 deadline
By Svetlana Marshall
THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has taken a decision to extend the hours for the conduct of House-to-House Registration as the exercise wraps up this weekend.
The decision to extend the hours comes one day after it decided to conclude the House-to-House Registration exercise on August 31, 2019.
“… Please be advised the field staff (AROs, clerks, enumerators) will be working from 10:00hrs – 19:00hrs daily for the remaining days,” the Elections Commission said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh took a unilateral decision to shorten the period for the national registration exercise with effect from Saturday. The decision was taken at a point when over 300, 000 persons have been registered during the exercise.
On Wednesday when Guyana Chronicle visited North Georgetown, enumerators were seen registering first-time registrants while collecting critical information. Once the exercise has concluded, GECOM will move to merge the data garnered from that registration exercise with the existing National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).
A registrant, who asked to remain anonymous, told Guyana Chronicle that she is in full support of the merger.
“When I understand what this merger is about, it is not a bad thing but if you want to disenfranchise the young people that would be wrong,” the Campbellville, Georgetown businesswoman told this newspaper.
The middle-aged woman said she is pleased that unregistered persons were given an opportunity, though shortened, to get registered. Though she had registered in the past, the businesswoman said she capitalised on the opportunity to register.
“Registering is a very good thing, it is benefiting everybody, and they are entitled to get registered. This is not a party thing, it is about what is right for the people of the country,” she told this newspaper. The Campbellville resident is urging unregistered Guyanese to utilise this window period to get registered.
GET REGISTERED
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has also urged unregistered Guyanese, 14 years and older, to get registered within the remaining days.
“It is clear to me that the registration process has not come to a stop, it has not been halted, there are still four days remaining and I would urge everyone 14 years and above to step forward in this window of opportunity to register,” the Prime Minister told Guyana Chronicle.
Though the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition had preferred the generation of a new National Register of Registrants through the process of House-to-House Registration, from which the Official List of Electors would have been extracted, the prime minister acknowledged that the national registration exercise is not the only means of arriving at a credible Official List of Electors.
“House-to-House Registration was a method but it was not the only method by which you could have an authentic, credible list. It was not the only method,” the prime minister told this newspaper, noting that based on GECOM’s decision, an extensive Claims and Objection exercise would be carried out in its quest to generate a credible list.
With more than 300,000 Guyanese already registered in this ongoing cycle of registration, Prime Minister Nagamootoo believes that the inclusion of that data into the National Register of Registrants Database would aid in the compilation of a credible Official List of Electors.
“Now that you have over 300,000 fresh registrants on the register, it means that you have over 300,000 authentic names, you don’t have to worry that you have 300,000 phantoms, you have credible names of people who are alive, and who are resident in Guyana and that makes the process credible,” PM Nagamootoo said.
He added: “This registration, House-to-House method has added credibility to the process of national registration because you couldn’t invent names and you can’t bring people out of the graveyard or those who have migrated permanently and place them on a list and feel that you are safe, that, that is an authentic list.”
Meanwhile, GECOM said it will continue to further deliberate on other matters of importance for the holding of General and Regional Elections within the shortest possible time, adding that the Secretariat will continue to implement a number of operations activities, in particular, training of polling day staff and procurement of non-sensitive materials.
