Members of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) say that Chairman, Justice (retired) Claudette Singh has been called upon to make a definitive decision on the use of the date collected during the recent House to House exercise (HtH).
Speaking with reporters yesterday following the commission’s longest meeting to date, government- nominated commissioner Charles Corbin said that on the matter of HtH “all issues have been properly ventilated and positions have been adopted.”
“At this point it is a question of decisions,” he stressed, adding that during yesterday’s meeting there was a repetition of views previously expressed and positions adopted.
“At this point in time the chairman will have to weigh in with a definitive position on which way to go,” Corbin maintained.
He reminded that when Justice Singh decided to bring HtH to a premature end she announced that the data collected “must be merged with the existing National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).”
In order to bring effect to this decision, he argued, the chairman must take a position on the way forward especially since the Claims and Objections period will end on November 11. General and Regional Elections are scheduled for March 2nd next year.
“A number of decisions to be made impact (on) the public so the earlier those decisions are made the better,” Corbin said.
He said that the secretariat has completed the encoding of all of the more than 370,000 transactions recorded during HtH and will begin the process of making this available for public scrutiny from tomorrow. A report from the secretariat has also indicated that the 180,000 entries sent for fingerprint cross-matching have been returned to Guyana and the remaining 190,000 will be dispatched soon.
The opposition-nominated Commissioner Sase Gunraj when speaking with reporters raised similar concerns about the need for a decision on the way forward in relation to HtH data but said those options must come from the secretariat.
“We are looking at what to do with it. A proposal is to publicize it for public scrutiny but then to what end? When you post it for public scrutiny what is one to do with it. Is one allowed to object, is one allowed to make a claim, and is one allowed to ask questions about entries on that list. Those are questions that have to be answered by the secretariat. Up to the present time we have not received any proposal as to how those issues will be treated with,” Gunraj said.
Both commissioners explained that while they continue to consider the removing from the NRRDD of the names of approximately 20,000 persons who have not collected their National Identification Cards since the 2008 HtH, no decision was made as Commissioner Vincent Alexander was absent.
Last week the matter was not put to a vote because Gunraj was absent.
“We are hoping to meet again this week to make decisions,” they both told reporters.
Meanwhile the Com-mission also met with a delegation from the Euro-pean Union (EU) which intends to field an observer mission for the March 2020 elections.
Corbin noted that the team explained the scope and methodology of their proposed mission and was welcomed by the commission which offered support and cooperation.
The team will be conducting pre-elections, peri-elections and post elections observation.
Corbin reiterated that the Commission remains open to receiving any assistance which corresponds with its needs and said that most of the major countries that have missions in Guyana have engaged with the commission and offered specific assistance.
“We already have had intervention through diplomatic channels to facilitate our work,” he said.
