The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has again registered its disappointment with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Secretariat. This time it is over utterances made by GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward.
Ward said this morning, “the list from [the] House to House registration is currently being displayed for public scrutiny and for persons to verify their information. If there are changes to their information they should visit the GECOM office in their area to update accordingly.”
PPP noted that the house-to-house process was scrapped and therefore cannot be used for any verification purposes. The party said that it views this advice from the PRO as a “deliberate attempt to frustrate the electorate”.
The PPP contends that many of these persons have already checked their names on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) and are now being told to return to verify their particulars. Further, the party noted that the statement was issued while the Commission was still meeting during its weekly statutory engagement.
“The trend – as evidenced by action after action – seems to demonstrate a determination of the GECOM Secretariat to act contrary to the Commission’s decision and issue statements not approved by the GECOM Chairperson, retired Justice Claudette Singh.”
The party said that that the house-to-house registrants’ list published by GECOM is replete with errors, which confirms suspicions about the process from its inception.
“There are thousands of names duplicated on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE) and thousands of persons who are under the voting age of 18. Our investigations would have found too, that dozens of persons listed as New Registrants cannot be found at the addresses listed and this is a serious cause for concern – fueling the worry that there are many non-existent persons on the list published by GECOM,” PPP stated.
PPP argues too that the house-to-house registrants’ list is not a supplementary list to the PLE and cannot be used during a Claims and Objections exercise. In fact, it noted that there is no provision in the laws of Guyana to authorise the publication of a duplicate list that does not originate from the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).
The latest development, the PPP said, strengthens its position that the house-to-house registration was flawed, and any attempt to merge the data from that process with the National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB) will contaminate and compromise the database.
“The People’s Progressive Party calls on GECOM to immediately withdraw the house-to-house registrants’ list and continue with the ongoing Claims and Objections Exercise,” PPP concluded.
