No decision has been taken by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on how it intends to deal with the previously reported 16,000 persons, who did not uplift their National Identification (ID) Cards from 2008. This was according to opposition-nominated Commissioner, Sase Gunraj.
Speaking to the media this afternoon, Gunraj noted that no alternative has since been proffered, since the commission embarked on a review of its previous decision to put those names on a separate list to serve as a supplemental of the Official List of Electors (OLE).
The commissioner is of the belief that there is no need for any mechanism to “flag” those persons for failure to uplift their ID cards.
His views differ from those expressed by government-nominated Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, who, while recognizing that a supplemental list might result in confusion, is advocating for alternative measures to ensure that those persons are subject to additional scrutiny.
Alexander told the media on December 3: “We are also of the collective view that at the end of the day, there must be a mechanism that focuses on those persons on election day. This mechanism will ensure that there is an alertness to the fact that there are sets of people who did not uplift their ID cards,” he said.
But Gunraj says that there should not even be a mechanism in place.
“The law does not provide for those persons to be flagged. I believe that flagging them will be a violation of their rights,” he said.
He went on to state: “the 1997 Regional and General Elections – which were vitiated by the very sitting chairperson of GECOM, Justice Claudette Singh – was vitiated on the ground that the imposition of voter identification cards, presented an additional requirement on a person to vote.
Gunraj said that the demand for uplifting of ID card is “tantamount to the same thing.”
The attorney-at-law maintained that flagging the names will serve as a fetter on a person’s right to vote.
