Overseas-based Guyanese have to be present in Guyana during the house-to-house registration period if they want to vote in the next general elections, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said on Friday.
“…if you reside overseas and you are not there at the time when the enumerators go to your house, then you cannot be considered to be on the list of electors. It’s not a matter of disenfranchising anyone,” he said during a post-cabinet press briefing held at the Ministry of the Presidency.
Harmon was asked to respond to claims that the house-to-house registration will disenfranchise Guyanese living overseas.
While noting that when the enumerators go to the various addresses “you should be there,” the minister reminded that Guyana’s law does not provide for overseas voting save and except those persons who are in the employ of the state and are in the embassies.
He insisted that persons who are Guyanese residing abroad at the time of house-to-house registration, would be unable to find their names on the voters’ list if they are not present at their local addresses when the registration exercise takes place. “That is why house-to-house is so important,” he stressed.
In early February, government supporters protested near the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to demand that house-to-house registration be conducted before the next general and regional elections are held.
It was argued that the existing voters’ list, which expires on April 30th, is ‘bloated’ and ought to be cleansed of all the dead people and those who are not residents. Views were also expressed that a claims and objections period would not be enough to “purge the list” to the degree necessary.
Government-nominated members of GECOM, Vincent Alexander, Charles Corbin and Desmond Trotman, have argued that the current voters’ list, which has in excess of 600,000 names, is severely bloated and that no “credible” election can be held before the list is cleansed of both the dead and those who have migrated.
The non-government organization, the Carter Center of Atlanta, Georgia had suggested a compromise, with the National Registration Act being operationalized, to sanitise the list of overseas-based Guyanese.
Section 40(1) provides for the Chief Immigration Officer to compile a list of those emigrating from the country and to submit this list every three months to the Commissioner of Registration.
The law further provides at 40(3) for the Commissioner to cancel the registration of these migrants under Section 38(1).
Section 38(1) (e) specifically provides for a registration officer to cancel the registration of a person if the registration officer is satisfied that such a person is not qualified to be registered.
Alexander had previously said that this provision does not violate a person’s right to vote since they can be present during the claims and objections period to have their registration reinstated. However, he later told Stabroek News that questions have been raised about whether the provision is constitutional.
He has dismissed claims made by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo that this process will be used for rigging purposes.
“I cannot take Jagdeo seriously. Jagdeo is at the epitome of the ‘silly season’ and as a responsible citizen, I have to turn my face on Jagdeo rather than take him seriously. Jagdeo is doing all within his might to incite the population and I cannot let that folly get to me,” Alexander said.
Jagdeo told a press conference in March that “APNU is hoping that through house-to-house registration they can tamper with the list. We are not going to accept this. We are not going to roll over and play dead on these issues.”
He claimed that the David Granger-led administration, GECOM Chairman Justice (ret’d) James Patterson, and the three government-nominated commissioners, were pushing to update the current voters’ list through house-to-house registration to facilitate rigging. Jagdeo has strongly objected to the new registration process, saying that it is not necessary and that a claims and objections period, which will take less time, would suffice.
Jagdeo, who served two terms as president, pointed out too that the APNU+AFC government did not object to the current voters’ list being used for last November’s local government elections and did not dispute the results of those elections.
GECOM has started training staff for national house-to-house registration and this continued in Georgetown over the weekend at 25 locations.
