…to ensure no duplicates among new registrants

THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has decided to conduct a sample survey within the population of citizens who participated in house-to-house registration to ensure that there are no duplicates amongst new registrants.

The survey will be conducted through random house-to-house visits countrywide by the commission’s office staff and scrutineers with a proposed sample size of 10 per cent.

“We decided that we will do a sample survey of some of the “hits” that they said they did not find,” Commissioner Vincent Alexander said.

“There was an issue with some of the duplicates. [Gemalto] sent a report and we thought that some of what they said were not duplicates were duplicates and so what we decided to do is a sample survey of the new registrants and to make sure that there are no duplicates.”

The commission has decided that the sample size ought not to be too large to the extent that it inhibits the commission from meeting its deadlines.

On December 3, 2019, commissioners had updated the media with the following information: the 370,000 transactions from the house-to-house exercise cross-matched by international digital security company, Gemalto, showed that some 60,000 forms did not “attract a hit” ; this means that they were new names not on the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB). However, through its own efforts, the commission found that some 17,000 persons who were presumed to be new, were already on the database.

From the approximately 43,000 persons remaining, the Guyana Chronicle was informed that some 23,000 were persons under age 18, while the remaining 20,000 are being checked.

At a previous meeting, Alexander had said that GECOM must follow the normal process of conducting field work based on the information sent back by the cross-matching firm.

He said that there were about 1,600 duplicates found from cross-matching between the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) and the house-to-house data.

“We have to do field work, we have to investigate in the fields,” he said.

Furthermore, the country’s laws state that GECOM shall decide on the form of verification of the list.