The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) yesterday urged voters at Friday’s Local Government Elections (LGE) to take along their national ID cards when they go to cast their ballots.
In a notice in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, GECOM said that it had been drawn to its attention that during the voting of the Joint Services on Tuesday, “too many voters turned up to cast their ballot without their ID cards”.
Folios with the photos of the electors which were at the polling stations had to be used to identify the voters.
GECOM urged voters not to repeat this practice on Friday.
The GECOM notice came in the wake of condemnation by the opposition PPP/C over the discovery that a number of voters turned up without their ID cards.
On Thursday, the PPP/C announced that it would press for the return of voter ID cards to be used specifically for voting.
“We didn’t push [then], we pushing for it now that we are in the opposition… we are taking what is called a dialectical approach to these matters,” General Secretary of the PPP Clement Rohee told a news conference at Freedom House.
The High Court had previously ruled that the use of ID cards as a requirement for voting was unconstitutional and vitiated the 1997 elections as a result.
Complaining about alleged infractions during Tuesday’s disciplined services voting, Rohee said that his party was not comfortable about the use of the GECOM folio, with electors’ particulars including their photographs, solely to verify a voter’s identity as it believes that it is susceptible to fraud.
“The PPP/C repeats its alarm at the high incidence of Disciplined Services (DS) Electors presenting themselves without a National Identification (ID) card for the purposes of voting. It noted that, while the detailed statistics on this phenomenon are being reviewed, the widespread and unusual occurrences of this nature can only serve to undermine the integrity of the polls. While it is still possible to vote after the proper administering of an “Oath of Identity,” the opportunity can be used for electoral fraud by the misdirecting of voters, double and multiple voting by impersonation and collusion, and the slowing down of the process of voting leading to voter frustration and disorder at the polling places,” he said, while reading from a party statement.
Although he did not produce evidence of any fraudulent practices during Tuesday’s voting, he said that the party was reviewing the issue and would mull options to ensure an ID card is used for the purpose of voting.
“The PPP/C remains firmly of the view that voting without an ID card should be a rare exception rather than a new normal situation”, he asserted.
