Ahead of the start of a new continuous registration cycle tomorrow, PNCR leader Robert Corbin has said that the main opposition party still has reservations about the preparations made by the Guyana Elections Commis-sion (Gecom) to conduct the process.
On Friday, Corbin said he still needed to hear “definitively” from Gecom, and that he was yet to receive anything in writing about what it was proposing to do. “We’ve heard a lot of announcements and about publications but as I speak to you, I have not to date received any formal letter from Gecom telling me what they are doing,” he said at a party news conference. He added that some disclosures were made at a meeting with parties last Wednesday and they were asked to have scrutineers present to monitor the process but he argued that correspondence should have come much earlier to permit stakeholders to look at what would be happening. “So, my concerns have not been addressed because I can’t hold them to anything that they have said in writing,” he added.
He had earlier expressed concern that arrangements had not been finalised for some of the schools proposed to serve as registration centres and he was also concerned about payment for scrutineers, which was an issue after the last claims and objections process was conducted.
Corbin also said he was dissatisfied with the public education campaign associated with the registration process. “I believe we should have had adequate publicity and a proper education programme unleashed if indeed this new exercise is to continue,” he said, noting that the process is crucial to next year’s elections. “If it’s done shoddy or it is not done in a way that will provide an opportunity for all eligible electors… to register as of the qualifying date, then to that extent it will impact the adequate holding of elections in 2011,” he emphasised.
Gecom has said the new exercise is scheduled to run countrywide until the end of the year. “People who have now reached the age of 18 they can now be registered so we expect that they will come forward and get themselves registered at the 27 offices that we will be having nationwide in the first instance,” Gecom Chairman Dr Surujbally explained at a recent press briefing, where the start of the exercise was announced. He added that there was capacity to have another 107 more offices nationwide and that in due course they would be opened.
Surujbally had also said that the staff for those offices had been earmarked and would undergo refresher training. A six-week Claims and Objections period will follow the registration process in January and that is to be succeeded by the fingerprinting and cross-matching exercise. According to notices published yesterday, Surujbally has issued the National Registration (Residents) Order 2010, which listed the qualifying date for the next elections as March 31, 2011.
When asked about the PNCR’s concerns, a Gecom official told Stabroek News that the party along with other had been invited to send its representatives for an update on the registration process. The official said too that there are opposition-nominated members of the commission who make policy decisions. Gecom, the official explained, has no legal obligation to inform the parties but does so in order to ensure that there is transparency in all its activities. “Gecom has always undertaken a consultative approach with the parties,” said the official.
PNCR MP Amna Ally, who is also the party’s Chief Scrutineer, met Gecom officials at the Wednesday meeting. She said Gecom personnel indicated that they were conducting training sessions for staff. Ally said she used the forum to voice her concern that the exercise could not be started simultaneously at all the centres, countrywide. “…Because another set of centres will come in to being during the last week of September and no exact date has been identified. Gecom’s response to that was a question of financing and unless monies are released, they will not be able to start that other part of the exercise,” she explained. She said she was told that Gecom has funds to start the process and is awaiting approval to continue.
The Gecom official pointed out that the temporary registration centres have indeed not been finalised but this was because the commission was seeking to ensure that it could use public buildings as far as practicable, in order to avoid having to pay rent costs as well as to avoid any potential accusation of conflict of interest.
On the issue of public education, the official said Gecom started this last weekend but noted that its funds were not unlimited. At the same time, the official pointed out that Gecom has programmes at the ground-level to sensitise people about the process and some prospective registrants are being targeted through schools.
