The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) called in the Police to probe three (3) cases of duplicate registrations which were committed during the ongoing Cycle of Continuous Registration.
In a statement, GECOM said its decision to call in the Police was taken after deliberations on a report on the internal investigations that were conducted in relation to the duplicate registration transactions.
The investigations revealed that three (3) persons who were already registered, applied again for registration using different source documents with different dates of issue, names, and dates of birth.
The Commission has warned that such a practice is against the law and carries serious penalties.
“In view of the case on point, it must be highlighted that the National Registration Act, Chapter 19:08 as amended by Act No. 26 of 2022 stipulates legal provisions for registration offences and the associated penalties. In this regard, it is of crucial importance to note that the registration laws have outlined penalties for registration offences, with provision for fines of up to five million dollars ($5,000,000) and imprisonment of five (5) years,” GECOM said in its statement.
The Elections Commission said that going forward, all cases of duplicate registrations will be reported to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for investigation.
GECOM has warned that acts such as deliberately provision of false information, fraudulently obtaining an identification card or fraudulently using an identification card, falsely alleging the loss or destruction of an identification card and applying for a new card while in the possession of an identification card, are all serious offences and breaches of the law.
In addition GECOM said withholding information about an existing registration and knowingly applying to be registered more than once are also in contravention of the laws.
The Commission has encouraged 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.
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