…GECOM gives 21 days ultimatum to persons who have not collected ID cards since 2008
…failure to do so will see 25,000 persons removed from voters’ list

By Lisa Hamilton

THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has sealed a decision that the over 20,000 persons who were registered in 2008, but have not yet collected their Identification (ID) cards, will be given 21 days to do the same or be struck off the Official List of Electors (OLE).

The decision was made on Tuesday at the commission’s statutory meeting, following a proposal at its October 15, 2019 meeting for such to be done.

“The Chair has ruled that persons who have not uplifted their identification cards, that their names will be published in the newspapers and they will be given 21 days within which to collect it and if they fail to respond to that, then they will be prevented from voting,” Commissioner Sase Gunraj said.

Commissioner Charles Corbin said that notices will also be sent directly to addresses of these persons that GECOM has on record. This list of persons is estimated to be in excess of 25,000 persons, but there is no information yet on when the list will be published.

At a previous meeting, Commissioner Vincent Alexander had explained, “It’s like an objection. So, the issue is not the ID card, the issue is that these persons, since 2008 and beyond 2008 have not, in any way, presented themselves to be present; to be known; to be alive; to be existing; to be resident. And, in calling them, writing to them gives us the opportunity to make a determination.”

Although he confirmed that efforts have been made in the past to contact these individuals who have still not verified their existence in the country, opposition-nominated commissioners have contested that the law does not stipulate that citizens need an ID card to vote and therefore the collection of these cards should be non-related.

Sticking to their position, Gunraj said on Wednesday that the decision “imposes an additional requirement on persons to be allowed to vote”.
On the other hand, some commissioners believe that these persons might be part of a scheme by the opposition to rig the upcoming elections. “Why are they not collecting their ID cards…thousands of ID cards and the opposition is arguing for them to remain on the list,” a commissioner, who asked not be named, recently reasoned to the newspaper.

Corbin also informed the media that the names of these individuals will not be removed from the National Registrar of Registrants (NRR) stating, “It would only mean that if these persons exist they may miss this round of elections.”

NO HIGHLIGHTING OF NAMES

Meanwhile, while another proposal had been made for the names of persons, who did not participate in the house-to-house registration exercise but are on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE), be highlighted on the OLE, this was shut down by the Chair.
According to Corbin, she read from a prepared document which in essence, made it clear that “the verification process will not be proceeded with”. At a previous meeting, commissioners had explained that the highlighting of names on the March 2, 2020 OLE was intended to avoid multiple and substitute voting in the coming elections.

Alexander had explained that there would be no deletion of names and that the names are instead being highlighted as names which can be compromised during the voting process.

“In so far as it related to the flagging of persons or the highlighting of persons names who did not go to verify their data during this house-to-house period, she said that that is not necessary; that they will do no such thing,” Gunraj said. As he spoke with the media he also objected to what he described as the use of the house-to-house registration data as a PLE.

Over the weekend, the commission had published and attached to the existing PLE at several of its locations, the list of registrants who participated in the house-to-house registration exercise. Gunraj stated that some on the commission are confused about what is to be done with the house-to-house registration information published. “As we speak, we are still unaware as to what has to happen with it,” he said.

“We are not sure whether the data is being put up there to attract the elements; how people must interact with the data or if they must look at data and smile at it. That is the position that I maintain up to today.” In explaining, Corbin said that prior to the premature halting of the house-to-house registration exercise the commission had intended to retire the current NNR from which a new NRR would be created from the exercise.

However, he stated that the Court ruled that the NRR could not be retired and that the house-to-house registration information should be treated as a means of verification.
“It means that you had now to go through the process of comparing the persons who are registered during the house-to-house with the existing base and use the information collected during the house-to-house to update the information of those persons who were previously registered,” he said.

“The time that it was taking to encode the data [so that it was] delaying the commencement – because you had to process that data prior to the extraction of the PLE – because of the time that was being taken to do that, there was another ruling of the Chairman that what we will now do is to move the processing of the data from the front end and move it out of the critical path and have it processed parallel to the house-to-house data.”

Corbin stated further that that will see the comparison of records to determine when there is a match with the NRR. On Tuesday, the American Chamber of Commerce in Guyana (AmCham Guyana) also met with the full commission where it was decided that the two bodies collaborate closely in regards to support to the commission in the upcoming elections. The commission welcomed the offer of support from AMCHAM Guyana and committed to deliberating on granting observer status to the organisation once a formal request is submitted.