…Alexander believes remainder either deceased or overseas

JUST around 300 persons on a list of over 18,000 have come forward to collect their Identification (ID) cards, since the publishing of a list of names in question by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

Commissioner Vincent Alexander says that he is not surprised that this number is very low as he had long stated that a number of these Guyanese may be deceased or overseas residents. “If these people who haven’t collected their cards consist of possibly the overseas dead, the local dead and the overseas people who haven’t uplifted their cards, it’s nothing alarming. The number who haven’t uplifted their cards is in itself alarming but the categories, there’s nothing alarming about it,” he told the media on Tuesday.

A list of names was published in the local newspapers on November 9, 2019 which showed that amongst those listed were 9,343 persons in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and some 3,267 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

Areas such as Kamarang in Region 7, recorded lower numbers such as 19 and 29 at Port Kaituma (Region One).

Everyone on the list has been given 21 days from publication to uplift the cards and will also be contacted by registered mail. Failure to do so will see them being excluded from the Official List of Electors [OLE] and placed on a Supplementary List on Elections Day. They will still be permitted to vote should they turn up with other appropriate identification.
Alexander pointed out the issue that there are no mechanisms to take someone off the list who has died overseas and similarly no mechanism locally to get the names of the dead off the list.

He said: “So, for me, there’s nothing alarming. We just have to deal with the issue to ensure that we don’t have these names hanging around to be manipulated at the electoral process…from observation, we don’t have that large number of people who don’t use ID cards but, secondly, whether or not they’ve done it in the past, we have made an effort to say to these people ‘come and uplift your cards’. One has to take a non-response as a problem…we’re trying to determine these people’s existence.”

Chairman of GECOM, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, had also expressed that it is “worrying” when such a high number of persons, some for more than 11 years, have not taken the opportunity to collect their ID cards. In the past, efforts have been made to contact these individuals but the majority has still not yet verified their existence in the country.

In addition to Regions Four and Six, 313 persons from Region One (Barima-Waini) have not collected their ID cards while 548 ID cards in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) have not been collected. Over in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 2,401 ID cards are still within GECOM’s possession, while in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) there are 1,094. In Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 280 ID cards are to be collected, in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), 124 and in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) another 263 ID cards are still to be collected. The area with the highest number of persons in question is Coldingen at 2,410, followed by Whim at 1,357.

The possession of an ID card enables persons to obtain old age pension, secure a driver’s licence or a loan, apply for a passport, obtain police clearance, transact business at the bank or post office, collect National Insurance benefits and more.