APPROXIMATELY 61 per cent of 16,863 new registrants recorded during the house-to-house registration exercise have been confirmed as existing during the five-day field-verification process which concluded on Sunday.

A document shared by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward showed that a total of 10,329 persons were confirmed within the timeframe; 6,534 were unconfirmed, meaning that they were not at their residence at the time of the visit.

While Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) showed the greatest number of new registrants confirmed, it also had the greatest number of persons unconfirmed. It was followed, respectively, by Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

A complete breakdown of the regions with new registrants and how many were confirmed showed: Region One (Barima-Waini) – 467out of 688; Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) – 810 out of 1,134; Region Three – 1,651 out of 3,038; Region Four – 4,056 out of 7,713; Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) – 666 out of 911; Region Six – 1,267 out of 1,754; Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) – 190 out of 271; Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) – 116 out of 154; Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) – 260 out of 290 and Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) – 846 out of 910.

Less than a week ago, the commission had voted that a team of scrutineers would be working up to December 22, 2019 to ensure that they verify the existence of some 16,000 new registrants.

The time limit was critical as failure to do so could have affected the commission’s planned timelines for the March 2020 elections.

“The exercise seeks to confirm the identities of approximately 16,300 persons. Working along with our staff and members of the scrutineering teams we will be moving to ensure that those persons are found. If not found, then the commission, at the next statutory meeting…will deliberate on further actions to be taken,” Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield had stated.

The need for verification came as there had been instances of duplicates whereby persons already on the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB) were found to be listed as new registrants.

Lowenfield said that the activity will bring closure to GECOM’s preparation of a Revised List of Electors (RLE), which will be the final list published for review before the Official List of Electors (OLE).

The commission is expected to meet again to deliberate on what will be done with the information gathered.