–presents varying incoherent arguments over the past three weeks

THE People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has presented three different positions on the voters’ list over the past three weeks.

This has raised eyebrows, since it further questions the party’s commitment to a transparent and credible electoral process.

While the PNCR has continued to refer to the voters’ list as “bloated”, it has not participated in the legal processes that would “clean” the list.

In fact, within the span of three weeks, the party has changed its position on the topic three times.

On February 7, PNCR Leader Leader Aubrey Norton spoke extensively on the voters’ list, and was probed on what flaws he’d found in it.

He said: “We have provided that information to the elections commission, and, at some stage, I will do a complete press conference on this whole question of what happened in that process… At some stage, we will address it, and give the figures we think need to be given.”

When probed on the figure of these claims and objections, Norton refused to comment, saying: “Why do I give you a figure arbitrarily? I have to engage our persons with responsibility for that, and then do a proper presentation.”

Although Norton had said that those persons responsible for claims and objections will prepare “a comprehensive” report on their claims and objections, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) later revealed that the political opposition did not submit any objections to the list during the last claims and objections exercise last month.

According to reports, GECOM’s first Claims and Objections exercise for the year only recorded nine objections during the period from January 2 – 22, and of the lot, none were filed by any of the opposition parties, including the one that Norton leads.

Cornered by this revelation by GECOM, Norton, during a press conference on February 14, finally admitted that no claims and objections were submitted.

He then attempted to defend this by saying: “We’re not doing any claims and objections at this stage; one more round of registration and the voters list will be bigger than the population. Why should we rescue them out of that by going and talk about claims and objections. To do that is to help the People’s Progressive Party; we are not going to do that… Any actions now will help the PPP; by saying that, you will not be able to take off the thousands, and then they claim that they clean the list. We ain’t stupid; we have commonsense. They’re trying to get us to do Claims and Objections so that they can spin it politically.”

In spite of all of this, this week, the party has once again changed its position on the subject.

Although Norton was a no-show at this week’s press conference, PNCR’s General Secretary Sherwin Benjamin addressed the subject.

Benjamin now asserts that a “bloated” voters’ list cannot be cleaned using the stipulated GECOM’s claims and objections procedure, which comes after continuous registration, which is completed every six months.

He said: “The Claims and Objections process is not designed to handle a large volume of objections, and cannot, therefore, purge the list of the tens of thousands of names in excess as a result of death or fraud… The central issue is not the number of objections made by the opposition during the continuous registration process; the central issue is the continuous bloating of the voters list.”

In response to more questions on the party’s “comprehensive report” outlining its findings of irregularities, which Norton had mentioned on February 7, 2025, Benjamin said the PNCR has taken a stance on how to go with this, but he would not discuss it with the media.

He said: “It does not mean that there will not be an objection filed with GECOM; at the appropriate time, action will be taken.”

Norton, on February 7, 2025, however, said GECOM would have received his party’s “comprehensive report” outlining its allegations of electoral infractions. GECOM, however, has, to date, received no such report, according to reports.

PROCESS

A key feature of Guyana’s continuous registration system is that it enables the country to be prepared for both general and regional elections at any given moment.

What this means is that instead of creating a register right before the elections, GECOM is able to update it every six months, owing to a continuous registration mechanism.

Continuous registration guarantees that frequent registration does not inevitably result in flaws in the Registration List. A period of Claims and Objections ensues after this.

As of February 6, 2025, following the conclusion of the most recent Continuous Registration Cycle and the Claims and Objections procedure, the current number of voters on the list is 738,484.

Chief Justice Roxane George declared in August 2019 that the removal of qualified individuals from the list is unlawful. She maintained that removing qualifying individuals from the list, if they are not in the jurisdiction or at their house when the registration process is taking place, is unconstitutional. She added that the only people who should be removed are those who have passed away, and those who are otherwise ineligible under Article 159(2), (3), or (4).

As it relates to the integrity of the electoral processes, GECOM, in a prior statement, re-emphasised that there are in existence multiple safeguards targeted to prevent multiple voting and other forms of skullduggery on Election Day.