Dear Editor,
THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is currently running off the Claims and Objections exercise across the country, following a recent robust and well scrutinised Continuous Registration Cycle. The responses so far have been slow, but the process for both activities involved the purposeful keenness of party-verification scrutineers from various divides. This approach supports an acceptable level of transparency and lends to the success of establishing a final representative Voters’ List for the holding of Local Government Elections as early as possible.

GECOM must be complimented for facilitating the recent very successful process of Continuous Registration, which realised over 70,000 transactions, thereby producing a very good Register of Registrants. Concerning the latter, the GECOM Public Relations Officer reported that 28,149 were new registrants between the ages of 14 and 17, while 21,130 were new registrants above the age of 18. Additionally, 4,629 persons applied for transfers, 6,526 persons changed or corrected their information, 7,667 applied for replacement identification cards and 1,940 registrants retook their ID photos. It is rational for one to accept the slow pace of transactions during this Claims and Objection Exercise is strongly linked to the thorough work that was done during the former cycle.

In keeping with customary practice, the GECOM-led Claims and Objections exercise which commenced on August 22, will allow qualifying parties further update opportunities to the final list. It is aimed at providing all stakeholders the opportunity to object to the names of deceased persons that may remain on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) from which the Official List of Electors (OLE) is gleaned. According to reports, approximately 1,000 new registrations of persons 18 years and older along with 500 transfers and 100 retaken photographs were completed. All the political stakeholders are in this process, and it will be interesting if there are any unreasonable complaints at the end of the exercise.

It is public knowledge that PNCR and Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton lead cries about the list being bloated, based on the inclusion of dead persons and the current exercise presents the opportunity for them to ensure the appropriate screening at this time. Many of their questions will be answered at the end of this exercise which allows the ‘nay-sayers’ to object to the names that are on the list that should be removed. Based on the list put up by GECOM around the country, it has been observed that the names of many persons who died are already removed, presumably, due to the coordination between the General Registration Office and GECOM.

Further, it is interesting that the total transactions have not been raised by the Norton clan as matters of concern. The beginning of the exercise was smooth, and it is now very slow with the closing date coming up there may be a little more response. However, the nation is looking out to see if the PNC will come up with some other ‘big-blocking,’ objections at the last moment. Guyanese are weary of the usual ridiculous claims that the PNC is famous for doing.

It is of note that the Norton-led cabal attempts to convey that the house-to-house approach will be a panacea for their claims regarding the current list. It is also widely known that the approach hypocritically targets the removal of the names of thousands of overseas or otherwise engaged Guyanese who may not find it convenient to be at their last noted address, at the time of a possible house-to-house visit.

They do so contrary to the ruling of the High Court, for want of convenience and excuses, also knowing that their representatives are in the polling station on Polling Day to identify any so-called “Dead Voters.” Of significant interest, it is the representatives of the same PNC/R and APNU who run the diaspora before each election to request qualifying Guyanese to return to vote and make donations.

Editor, permit me to remind our qualifying citizens that when making Claims and Objections, they must have the relevant source documents. Original Birth Certificate or a valid Passport in the case of new registrations. Original naturalisation certificate issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and original birth certificate or a valid passport in the case of naturalisation.

The original marriage certificate and original birth certificate should be presented in the case of a request for a name change by marriage. Further, it must be noted that citizens must also present to the officials at the GECOM Registration Office, original deed poll, and original birth certificate in the case of a name change by deed poll.

It is important for anyone making an objection to any name on the OLE to be accredited by the scrutineers or by an elector who is listed in the same division list as the person to which, he or she is objecting. Citizens must also be aware that they can and must use this exercise to make sure that their ID cards are appropriate. The GECOM official would also conduct updates concerning corrections of the wrong spelling of one’s name, wrong date of birth, and defaced pictures. Further, lost ID cards could be replaced by citizens who make an application for this, using the statutory form from the GECOM office, after it is signed by a Commissioner of Oath.
GECOM must be complimented for its genuine effort to produce the best possible List of Electors in preparation for the overdue LGEs.

Yours sincerely,
Neil Kumar