Dear Editor,
I was reading the Citizens Report of February 29, 2016 when I came across a patch of nonsense attributed to a quote of the PPP General Secretary. It read: “The Party again raises its concern and reservations with respect to persons without ID cards being allowed to vote at these elections and insist that Gecom should discourage persons from voting without ID cards. There appears to be a contradiction between what the law allows and what has been the practice. It makes absolutely no sense for a person to have been denied an ID card because he or she had no source document, particularly a birth certificate and, at the end of the day, having been subjected to a royal run-around only to be told that the ID card is not necessary by law to allow the elector to cast his or her vote.”
That piece is so diabolical. It presents the picture of a person being denied an ID card but subsequently being allowed to vote not having been able to acquire an ID card. This is proffered either wickedly or in gross and or crass ignorance. None are acceptable from someone close to the seat of government.
The issue is not about ID cards. It is all about registration. No source document, no registration. No registration, no ID. No ID card, no name on the voters’ list. No name on the voters’ list, no opportunity to vote.
Those persons who are allowed to vote without ID cards are registered. Their names are on the voters’ list. They are therefore eligible to vote and will be identifiable by bio-data and picture on the folio, a report derived from the list of electors, which is accessible to every official in a polling station.
There is therefore no contradiction. A person must be registered to be eligible to vote. Such a person would have had an ID prepared for him or her and therefore technically has an ID card, which he or she might not have in his or her possession, for one reason or another, on the day of voting.
Our laws, statutory and precedent, provide for registered persons to vote. They also specify that they may vote without an ID card.
Registration is the issue. Let’s not confuse the nation with the falsity that one who does not bear an ID card, is not registered. Let’s not drown our citizens in ignorance, rather let’s enlighten them with knowledge.
Yours faithfully,
Vincent Alexander
Gecom Commissioner
