With the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) taking a decision to suspend its continuous registration process, commissioners have agreed those registered as of yesterday will be added to the National Register of Registrants (NRR) and placed on the lists of electors.
The suspension is to facilitate the holding of Local Government Elections scheduled for June 12 so as to prevent persons from being disenfranchised at the upcoming polls.
Government-nominated Commissioner, Sase Gunraj, explained that the decision was made after concerns were raised by the Chief Election Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud that those being registered in the continuous registration process faced disenfranchisement by not being a part of the Preliminary Voters’ List (PLV).
“The issue was raised in relation to the possible disenfranchisement of persons who would have registered in the continuous registration process after that extraction of PLV,” he stated.
During the continuous registration period there are periodic committals of registrants being added to the NRR. The last committal was done in January with a PLV produced in February.
According to Gunraj, much deliberation took place as they were tasked with finding a mechanism to deal with those persons who were not on the initial list that was generated earlier this month.
In this regard, the commission’s CEO presented a proposal with a slew of measures on how they would could address the issue.
“After some discussion on the issue, the CEO bought a proposal which saw a slew of measures, including those persons, rather than excluding them and having them subject to the same scrutiny as any person who applied for registration will undergo,” Gunraj said.
After lengthy discussions at a meeting yesterday, GECOM Chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh, ruled that the additional 2,000 new registrants will undergo public scrutiny via the published list and subjected to cross-matching of fingerprints to prevent duplication on the NRR and the voters list.
This process, Gunraj assured, will not impact the work of the commission in its preparation for the upcoming elections. He noted that a finalised completed List of Electors should be available within 21 days’ time.
“So far, there seems to be no impact in relation to the date of elections nor any other process that is dependent on this during the preparation for local government elections,” the commissioner stated.
Efforts by Stabroek News to contact an Opposition Commissioner for comment proved futile.
