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Thousands of ID Cards uncollected – GECOM

Jun 03, 2011 News

Although national elections are only months away, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has over 30,000 National Identification Cards (ID) in its possession, says Dr. Steve Surujbally, Chairman of the Commission.
This was revealed yesterday to those in attendance at the 19th Annual General Meeting of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) at the Pegasus Hotel.
However, Dr. Surujbally is not worried about this figure, since it implies that those people would have existed at some point in time, and he posited that some may have migrated and others made their earthly departure.
In addition, the commission has a folio mechanism in place comprising information which includes the voters’ names, sex and pictures.
He noted that this is being debated, but it is his belief that if a person turns up at the polling station without his/her ID, once the information corresponds to the person in question he/she should be allowed to vote. The Chairman hopes that his colleagues understand that concept.
Dr. Surujbally sees the decommissioning of the existing two IDs (red and green) as necessary, since it is nonsensical to have three IDs floating around.
It was emphasized that over 490,000 have registered and the GECOM office is open for persons desirous of collecting their IDs. Moreover, the option is also open for persons to retake their picture for a new ID if the picture is flawed.
Another pressing issue addressed was the availability of documents to register for identification. He noted that for years the commission has been pleading with persons to ensure they have birth certificates or passports and to date 38,000 persons are without those documents.
Data highlighting persons in need of the documents were given to stakeholders involved, including persons who wanted to help.
Some persons complained that the documents were costly to obtain, but according to Dr. Surujbally, the membership of many political parties includes lawyers, Justices of Peace and Commissioners of Oaths and Affidavits, and they could assist their constituents.

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