Over 9,000 new registrants have so far been recorded during the first cycle of continuous registration for 2024, currently being executed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), according to its Public Relations Officer of the Commission, Yolanda Ward.
In an interview with News Source, Ward said of the more than 9,000 new registrants, approximately 6,396 of them, will be eligible to vote in the next General and Regional Elections, once their particulars are in keeping with the Laws of Guyana.
“Now to give you a quick breakdown in terms of new registrations, we would have had just about 9,290 applications for new registrations, and this we normally split them into two categories, what we refer to as category A and category B. Category A are those persons who are eligible electors, meaning that, they are 18-years and older, and therefore they are qualified to be extracted from the National Register of Registrants Database unto an official list of electors; and the category B persons, are persons between 14-17 years old. So, we have had just about 6,396 persons 18-years and older who applied for registration during this period, and 2,894 persons in the category B aspect,” the GECOM Public Relations Officer explained.
Ward said there were approximately 19,656 registration transactions completed at GECOM offices across the country as of the 20th May. Those transactions included, new registrations, requests for transfer and name changes.
“To date, we have had a very good response, and we have had a continuous flow of applicants to our registration offices across the country for various registration transactions ranging from new registration, we have persons who would have applied for transfers in relation to their addresses, we had persons who would have applied for corrections to their registration particulars, those are persons who would have already been registered but for some reason there was an incorrect spelling in their name, they now want to do a change of name, maybe a woman who would have gotten married, these are all transactions that are done during this continuous registration period,” Ward said.
This first cycle of continuous registration, which commenced on January 3, 2024 in keeping with the National Registration (Amendment) Act, will conclude on May 31, 2024. It was explained that persons who will be 14 years and older by June 30, 2024 are eligible to register during the cycle.
With just 10 days left before the cycle concludes, Ward is encouraging persons to get registered, however, she explained that applicants must be Guyanese citizens by birth, descent, registration or naturalization, or is a citizen from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more.
She said it is important for persons to get registered.
“The importance is really two-fold. One, in the first instance to be issued with your National Identification Card, and also to ensure that you are in that National Register of Registrants Data. It is from that database that once you are eligible to participate in the electoral process that you are then extracted onto an official list of electors. So, in order for you to exercise your constitutional right to participate in the electoral process in any elections in Guyana, it starts with first of all registering. So, registration of course is very critical, she reasoned.
The second cycle of continuous registration will commence in July and conclude in November.
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