
By Svetlana Marshall
Acting Chief Justice Roxane George, has set March 17 as the date for arguments to begin in the house-to-house verification case. In the case, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) is seeking an order from the Court directing the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to conduct a house-to-house verification of the addresses of registrants.
The Application was filed by longstanding member of the PNCR and the party’s Chief Election Scrutineer, Carol Smith-Joseph, with the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, the Commissioner of Registration, Vishnu Persaud, and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) listed as the respondents in the matter.
Smith-Joseph appeared at the High Court today alongside her attorneys, Dr. Dexter Todd and Dexter Smartt as the acting Chief Justice presided over a Case Management Conference.
The PNCR official has asked the Court to declare that the National Registration Act requires not only the verification of the existence of addresses claimed, but also that the applicants live at, or are connected to those addresses.
Outside of the Courtroom, Attorney Dr. Dexter Todd explained that the application addresses an important issue that arose since the amendment of the National Registration Act.
“Prior to the amendment, in the registration process, there has always been connecting, when it comes to the verification of an address, there has always been connecting the registrant to the address. With the amendment, what you have is that [Section] 6 (4)B only speaks to address claimed. So, what the registration officers have been doing, is verifying address but they have not been connecting the registration to the address. So, that has presented a serious, serious problem,” Dr Todd explained.
Todd told reporters that in some cases, registrants have absolutely no connection to the addresses they provide to registration officers. In other cases, the addresses provided have no building on them or have dilapidated or abandoned houses.
The situation, he said, is concerning.

He said under the law, Guyana, in particular the Commissioner of Registration, is obligated to ensure that the National Register of Registrants (NRR) is populated with accurate information.
It was submitted that inaccurate information such as addresses can affect the outcome of elections where constituency voting is required.
“We have a number of elections that requires geographical locations being important, especially when you are talking about constituency voting. So, if you do not verify the information going into the register, you are going to have a problem. Because it is from the register that the extractions are made,” Dr Todd said.
But Attorney General, Senior Counsel Anil Nandlall told reporters that the issue of “residency” was adequately addressed in the House-to-House Registration Case back in 2019, when Acting Chief Justice George ruled that residency was not a condition for registration.
In that case, which was argued by Nandlall who was then in the opposition, the Acting Chief Justice ruled that the names of persons listed in the National Register of Registrant Database cannot be removed whether they are living in Guyana or abroad.
The Attorney General said the matter was settled, and whether or not a person is residing at an address provided is irrelevant.
“So, if you don’t have to have a fixed place of abode or a fixed address in Guyana, and in fact you can have a fixed addressed in Queens, New York or you can have a fixed address in London and you are still qualified to vote in Guyana by virtue of the Constitution, on what basis is there a requirement that you must live at a particular address in order to vote? Just work it out logically in your mind,” he argued.
He said that the National Registration Act was amended following the 2020 Elections to bring it in conformity with the Constitution of Guyana. He argued further that it would be unconstitutional to prevent someone from registering in a location because his or her address may be flawed.
“Anytime, any person is refused registration or would be refused the right to vote because of some deficiency in their address that would be an abrogation and a violation of not only the constitution but that person’s constitutional right to vote, and that is what that case is about,” the Attorney General said.
But Smith-Joseph believes that provision of incorrect addresses would have grave implications for any election. She said it is important for the Court to pronounce on the matter.
Outside the Court, the Opposition has been advocating for a clean voters’ list, while contending that the existing list is heavily bloated with names of dead persons and Guyanese who have not resided in the country for decades.
The current voters’ list has more than 718,000 persons listed. Guyana’s population is just over 800,000.
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