Dear Editor,
GECOM claims there are 20,556 new registrants from the questionable house-to-house (HTH) registration and they want to merge this list into the Official List of Electors (OLE). They continue to ignore the salient, critical fact that these names were gathered in an exercise that did not include scrutiny and verification by the largest political party in Guyana, as mandated by law. Already, PPP activists have exposed names purported to be new registrants who are really persons previously registered. Two such names that have emerged as examples are the names of Justice Cecil Kennard, a former Chancellor, and Mr. Jailall Kissoon, a former Minister of the PNC and a prominent attorney. Just these examples demonstrate that the list of new registrants that GECOM has generated is hopelessly flawed and raises the possibility of criminal shenanigans. Why then is GECOM so dead-set to merge these names without 100% verification? Such verification is something that could be done within days. Their haste to merge this list and their absolute objection to comprehensive verification raise serious suspicions that GECOM’s intention is not pure.
A clean list of voters is indispensable for a free and fair elections. Guyana’s continuous registration system is designed to ensure that every citizen 18 years and older has the opportunity to be listed. For the upcoming March 2020 general elections, there appears to be a vulgar messing around with the list of voters.
Initially, GECOM wanted to merge 370,000 names from the HTH into the NRR (National Register of Registrants) and then extract a new PLE (Preliminary Voters List). But the mandated finger-print cross matching determined that about 300,000 of the names, in fact, were already in the NRR. GECOM then proposed merging the remaining 70,000, even though these were never verified by all political stakeholders and even though there were other anomalies. Under pressure, from the PPP, GECOM admitted that only 20,556 names were actually new registrants eligible to vote. Even with serious questions surrounding the list of 20,556 persons, GECOM is insisting they will merge this list into the NRR and into the new OLE. They are steadfast in their refusal for verification, even as the list is already impugned, even as GECOM attracts further humiliation and embarrassment.
The refusal for verification is suspicious because this same GECOM wanted to remove about 20,000 names from the list because these persons still are to collect their ID cards. The persons whose names they want to remove were legitimately registered, their registration were scrutinized and verified with at-home proof of residency and they met all legal requirements during their registration exercise and have voted in previous elections. Yet GECOM demands they prove all over again that they actually exist. Contrast this posture with the existing one for the so-called new registrants. These persons were registered with no scrutiny by the largest political party in Guyana or by any of the other political parties outside of the APNU+AFC grouping, in contravention of the laws of Guyana.
GECOM has a sacred responsibility to generate an environment of confidence in the election. What GECOM is doing with the OLE presently is creating too much suspicion. The refusal to verify the list of so-called new registrants is reckless, particularly given the flaws already exposed. To add to the recklessness is GECOM’s demand that the PPP can verify by itself. The PPP will do so. But will GECOM accept the PPP’s findings? Is this going to be another unnecessary fight?
Justice Claudette Singh must act with fairness and with firmness. At the same time, GECOM’s insistence they will remove 20,000 names of persons who legitimately registered, many of whom voted in previous elections, just because they did not collect their ID cards is puzzling.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy
