On the heels of scathing criticisms from the political opposition, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) clarified that Guyanese would not be required to visit their respective registration offices with their identification cards so as to make it onto the voters’ list.
While this correction by GECOM Chairwoman, Justice (retired) Claudette Singh is welcomed, Attorney-at-Law and Opposition Member, Charles Rmson Jr. believes an investigation needs to be conducted to ascertain how such a ludicrous position was available for public consumption in the first place.
Ramson said, “I welcome the correction by the Chairperson of GECOM to its previously announced position which required the attendance of persons at the GECOM offices in order to be included on the list of electors during this period of claims and objections. Never in the history of free and fair elections in Guyana was this previously announced position the practice.”
Had it been allowed to go through, the lawyer said it would have resulted in hundreds of thousands of persons losing their constitutional right to vote.
“For those two reasons, the previously announced position could only have been seen as deeply concerning and damaging to the perception of GECOM’s impartiality. This situation, though now corrected, should not be swept under the carpet and requires an immediate investigation and public explanation,” the 35-year-old stated.
PPP’s representative at the Guyana Elections Commission, Sase Gunraj was one of the first to bring this matter to the public’s attention. Guraj had said that it was brought to his attention that a press release was purportedly issued by GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Warde which stated that during the claims and objections period, every person whose name appears on the preliminary list of electors must visit the registration office of their respective area and present an identification card to verify their registration record in order to be included in the official list of electors.
Gunraj had said that this was nothing but “hogwash” while noting that it was just another way of trying to impose house-to-house registration.
