The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will soon be calling in the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to investigate a possible Identification Card (ID) Card scheme which was detected during the ongoing registration cycle.
GECOM said it took a decision to involve the police at its statutory meeting yesterday. It said three cases of duplicate registrations were committed during the ongoing cycle of continuous registration.
The election body noted that these investigations revealed that three persons who were already registered, had applied again for registration using documents with different dates of issue, names, and dates of birth.
The commission noted that the registration laws have outlined penalties for such offences, with the provision of fines up to $5M and imprisonment of five years.
“The commission takes this opportunity to formally notify all concerned that henceforth, all cases of duplicate registrations will be reported to the Guyana Police Force for investigation, and consequent action in keeping with the relevant legal provisions,” the body stated.
In view of the foregoing, GECOM listed, some of the registration offences that are included in the National Registration Act. They are as follows: deliberately providing false information, fraudulently obtaining an identification card, fraudulent use of an identification card, falsely alleging the loss or destruction of an ID card and applying for a new one while in possession of the former, presenting false information or documents containing false information for registration, or withholding information about an existing registration.
The commission said it is encouraging all applicants for registration, change of name(s) and corrections to existing registration particulars to ensure that they abide by the legal registration provisions, and to be aware of the registration offences and consequences.
