Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, Dr. Steve Surujbally and Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield spent just over 90 minutes on a hot Thursday afternoon in Georgetown to douse concerns expressed by the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic about the Preliminary List of Electors. He described the accusations leveled against GECOM has “ill-advised” and he resented claims that the List of Electors was “padded”.
Over the past six weeks, the PPP has used its Monday morning press briefings to highlight concerns it has about the Preliminary List of Electors, from the number of new registrants to the presence of the names of dead persons on the list.
Surujbally said most of the concerns could be categorised as deception and GECOM preferred to be on the side of the facts and truth. He made specific reference to recent concerns raised by the PPP that during one of its checks at an East Bank Village, 10 persons who were not on the PLE could not be found because the lot was an empty plot of land with overgrown bushes. Surujbally said just after receiving the concern from the PPP, staff members of GECOM were dispatched and it was revealed that the house had collapsed and the occupants had taken up residence at another property in a village not too far away. He said the checks were made and the ten persons were located.
With regard to the presence of the late President Arthur Chung’s name still on the Preliminary List, the Elections Commission Chairman explained that it could remain there until GECOM is informed by the General Registrar Office of his death officially. He said although it is known that Mr. Chung passed away, the Elections Commission could not take it upon itself to remove his name or the name of any other dead person from the list, if it does not receive official notification from the General Registrars Office which issues death certificates and which would monthly provide the Elections Commission with a list of persons whose deaths would have been registered.
The Chairman pointed out that there should be cautious when objecting to the presence of some persons on the voter’s list because of death in the absence of information from the General Registrar Office. He said 19 persons whose presence on the voters list was objected to by one party because of death, have been found to all be alive and well.
He said since 2008, the General Registrar’s Office has reported the deaths of 12, 404 persons to the Elections Commission and all of those names have been flagged for removal from the voters list.
The General Registrars Office falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Dr. Surujbally said while he would not want to say that the office is inefficient, it must be noted that in the year 2014, the General Registrar’s Office is still to be computerised. He made it clear that the problems and issues facing that office cannot be fixed by GECOM but rather by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee is the current Minister of Home Affairs and the General Registrar’s Office falls directly under his portfolio.
In explaining the growth of the number of new electors on the PLE, Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield said one has to take into account the fact that a continuous registration period is now in place. He said the result is that persons who would have been registered at the age of 14 a few years ago, would have now reached the voting age of 18 and therefore would be on the Preliminary List of Electors.
He explained that since the house to house registration exercise in 2008, there have been five other cycles of Continuous Registration. He said the number of new registrants has been growing steadily over the past six years and the total number of new electors on the 2014 PLE now stands at 87, 295 and that figure represents persons who would have been registered over the past six years.
Member of the Elections Commission, Vincent Alexander said it is surprising that one party would be raising concerns about the process when that party like the other parliamentary parties would have scrutineers who are apart of every registration and verification exercise and would therefore be in receipt of the same information that GECOM would have gathered.
The Elections Commission Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally said the list was a near perfect one but it is not padded and it is one that could take the test of time.
Guyana is gearing up for possible national elections earlier than expected as the combined opposition parties have indicated their intention to move to the National Assembly with a no confidence motion against the Government.
The motion is expected to be presented to the House in October and once debated and passed, it will force the President to call elections three months after the passage of the motion. The combined Opposition parties, the Alliance for Change and A Partnership for National Unity hold the majority in the National Assembly.
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