APNU-AFC gives GECOM thumbs-up for elections preparations

Mar 06, 2015 News

…supports GNYC’s voter education drive
By Zena Henry
The newly formed A Partnership for National Unity Party (APNU)-Alliance for Change (AFC) partnership is

APNU-AFC’s
David Patterson

quite satisfied with the work that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has done so far.
Members of the political alliance met with GECOM executives on Wednesday to clarify several issues and get an update on the agency’s election preparation progress. The party was “satisfied with the responses received,” AFC General Secretary David Patterson told this newspaper.
According to Patterson, the discussions included the hiring of polling day staffers, the recently held claims and objections period, fingerprint cross-matching and the increased voters’ list among other pertinent issues. He said that the coalition indicated its concern about the Commission not having adequate staffers to work on polling day and ensuring that they are properly trained.
The response, Patterson said, related to strategies the agency has in place. The Commission had told media operatives that a shortage of staffers to man the 2,260 polling stations across the country existed in regions one, four and six. The agency spoke of a “reservoir of staffers” and was confident that the slots would be filled, and agents trained, in time for Election Day.
The partnership sought an update on the progress of the transfers during the claims and objections period and registered concern about the increase in the Preliminary List of Voters. Again the general apprehension of having names removed from the list was discussed. The law says that to remove the name of a deceased person, one must have physical proof of this, but failure to submit the document to have the name removed is leading to an uncontrollable swell in the voters’ list. The Commission’s executives and political parties have all registered the need to find alternate ways of removing names of the deceased, an issue the Partnership says it will look at if elected as government.
The team also sought information from the Commission pertaining to fingerprint cross-matching in relation to new registrants during the claims and objections period, and again, Patterson said the response was favourable. GECOM also responded to questions pertaining to voting for security forces. Patterson said that the agency informed that as usual, the forces would be voting before the rest of the country.
On the other hand, Patterson expressed bewilderment at condemnations against GECOM for partnering with the Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC). People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Clement Rohee had stated that, “The organisation claiming to represent Guyana’s youth has no authority to do so. As far as the PPP is concerned this youth grouping is a creature of external interference through the LEAD (US Leadership and Democracy) project, and is nothing more than a group of partisan persons who are attempting to hijack the name Guyana National Youth Council.”
Rohee had expressed the party’s disapproval of GECOM collaborating with the GNYC in its aim to bring more young people to the polls. Patterson said that his party is supportive of the group being involved in voter education, especially with young people being targeted in awareness drives about the political voting process.
Patterson also criticized the PPP General Secretary, stating that he was one to boast of the party’s commitment to young people and how much it had done for them. “You would think that they (PPP) would be happy, since they boast of how much they are doing for young people.”
Patterson said that his party is delighted to see that the youth-led body is engaging in public education. The GNYC said in its defence that it is a legally registered and independent youth-led Non-Governmental organisation, whose membership is “inclusive of Guyanese across the diverse political, geographic and ethnic spectrum and the leadership intends to continue engaging youth in a manner that promotes the development and education of Guyanese young people, (regardless of their political affiliation)”.