Dear Editor,

THE feedback from scrutineers and other reliable sources confirms that approximately 15,000 new voters have already taken the opportunity to get registered since the commencement of this current Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Continuous Registration Cycle. In addition, another 5,000 persons have already visited GECOM offices around the country and are benefiting from the many other related update transactions that are available to our citizens during this period.

It is indeed heartening to see that our young people 14 years and over, are making genuine efforts to get registered. GECOM must also be complimented for their public relations efforts, which also targets the audience at the grassroot and school levels. Notably, GECOM’s mobile response during this Continuous Registration is strengthening the process. Our young persons between the ages of 14 and 17 years, will become first-time additions to the Register of Registrants.

Significantly, many other persons who submitted requests for replacement of lost Identification (ID) Cards, or to have other changes before the 2020 elections, are now uplifting their ID cards. This is, given that GECOM did not complete issuance in the expected period following the last continuous registration exercise before the March 2020 elections. It is also known that many young persons registered during the suspended house-to-house exercise, but some did not satisfy the age criterion for being on the 2020 Final Voters List and were not updated. Hence, these youths have the opportunity to re-register and no doubt are looking forward to having their ID cards.

Against the highlighted positives and basis for legitimate expectation of the use of Continuous Registration as the legally endowed and precedent-setting approach, one must note the opposition’s persistent and pretentious advocacy for a new House-to-House Registration, in an attempt to disenfranchise thousands of Guyanese who for justifiable reasons may not be in Guyana at the time of such an exercise.

They do so, knowing that the House-to-House method as an approach to updating the Register of Registrants will take over three years and in so doing, is likely to suppress any elections scheduled to be held within the period. Further, they are also aware that this method conflicts with the court’s decision on the removal of registered persons from the list.

Notwithstanding this, our citizens are not falling for this ‘booby trap’ and are responding positively in this continuous registration cycle. This is particularly since they are aware of the necessity to visit the GECOM permanent offices and get all their necessary transactions done. GECOM staff overseeing the process, so far have done remarkably well and must be congratulated. Albeit the PNCR’s hypocritical complaints, their representative scrutineers are involved at all of GECOM’s Continuous Registration offices.

This position augurs well for transparency and the process will enable GECOM to produce an updated list for the Claims and Objection process. As such, it must be supported as an inclusive approach that allows a verifiable purpose of queries, checks, and approvals. It is critical to note that after the Claims and Objections period, GECOM will embark on the necessary cross-matching for the elimination of duplications and other anomalies, and then print the present list along with the newly registered persons.

The Claims and Objections period will also enable our registered citizens the opportunity to make sure that they check and verify that their names are on the list which GECOM will post up in the various communities for public scrutiny. After cleansing of that list based on responses from the resulting public queries, GECOM will then move to produce the Official List of Voters for the Local Government Elections in this case.

All interested stakeholders should assist to bring awareness to our people and in motivating citizens to get registered in their respective communities, so that our people could enjoy easy access to the corresponding polling booth on polling day. Further, citizens must note that when one is registered at the place where he or she resides, it will enable the empowerment of one to vote, support, and elect representatives of their own choice to function as community representative councillors on the Neighbourhood Democratic Council in which that community falls. One cannot be a representative councillor if he or she resides outside of the specific Local Authority Area (LAA).

Consequently, updating of the list is very critical and all stakeholders also must do their groundwork to get all our people on the corresponding list for that LAA. Local Government Elections are overdue and we need to hold LGEs so that the most suitable persons could be elected to give quality leadership at the local level.

All those who are calling for a better Voters List must use the opportunity to get our people to register and do what is necessary to get ‘dead’ persons off the list following the accepted procedures. We must note that names cannot be removed at the whims and fancies of jokers. Hence, this process is very important for our people to get their names on the list. GECOM must continue to ensure the smooth flow of its work in this regard, as this will guarantee the strengthening of our necessary democratic re-building.

Yours sincerely,
Neil Kumar