– GECOM says in response to PPP claims

WEEKS after alleging that many Guyanese on the Revised List of Electors do not exist or would have given false addresses, the accusers are yet to provide credible evidence; instead, what has been provided are fabricated documents intended to cause confusion, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward, said on Tuesday.

In a Letter to the Editor published in the Guyana Times on January 22, 2020 under the title ‘Chairperson of GECOM should act decisively,” it was alleged that 18 empty lots were discovered at Sugar Cane Fields, Peters Hall, where registrants were listed as resident. Three days after, the Guyana Times, upon discovering that the lots were not empty, published a report under the headline “Windsor Estate residents in uproar over GECOM’s blunder.”

The first paragraph of that article read: “Several residents living at Windsor Estate, Peters Hall, East Bank Demerara (EBD), are concerned about the flaws in GECOM’s Revised List of Electors (RLE), which lists their credentials allotted to addresses at empty lands.”
But in an interview with Guyana Chronicle, Ward made it clear that there was no “blunder” on the part of GECOM, explaining that the document referred to by the author of the letter (S. Baksh) and in the Guyana Times article, was fabricated, and as such, is of no merit.
In both the letter and the article, a four-column table consisting 18 names and addresses were listed, and in the “remarks” section, the words “empty lot” appeared. The table, Ward, maintained is fictitious.

Added to that, Ward said GECOM did not err when it identified the addresses of the 18 registrants as existing in ‘Sugar Cane Fields,’ Peters Hall, East Bank Demerara (EBD) and not Windsor Estate. “We could only use what is on the cadastral plan. Windsor Estate is not gazzetted. It is not on the cadastral plan…We have to use what is on the cadastral plan, and on the plan, Sugar Cane Fields is listed,” Ward explained.

She also refuted the contention that the 18 persons, who had registered during the 2019 house-to-house registration cycle, were phantoms. Rubbishing the allegations, Ward explained that a majority of those listed had registered since 2012. At the time, scrutineers from the major political parties were on the ground and had verified the existence of the registrants.

“These people were scrutinised; they were recognised from both political parties and they actually exist. But as it relates to their addresses, we can’t put Windsor Estate, we have to use what is gazzetted and is on the cadastral plan,” the PRO further explained.
At the March 2 General and Regional Elections, those residents, she posited, would be required to vote at the Peters Hall Primary School as they would have done over the years. According to her, the residents listed, could rest-assured that their right to vote would not be violated.

On the grounds that 16,000 plus Guyanese had registered for the first time in 2019 during a legitimate process, and their existence and residency verified, the Elections Commission took a decision to add them to the National Register of Registrants Database but this move has not received the support of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and its allies.
There has been a push for the 6,534 of those new registrants to be removed from the National Register of Registrants Database and by extension the Revised List of Electors for the upcoming general elections. In response, the Chairman of GECOM, Justice Claudette Singh, challenged them to provide evidence to support their contention that thousands of Guyanese, who had registered during the 2019 house-to-house registration are non-existent or do not live at the addresses listed. To date, there has been no evidence to support the contention that the new registrants are phantoms and do not live at the addresses listed.