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New Voters… Registration, claims and objections could be done in two weeks – Jagdeo
Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, says that claims and objections to clear up current issues being raised by the government about the voters’ list could be undertaken in two weeks.
At his weekly press conference yesterday, Jagdeo sought to rubbish contentions by the government that House-to-House registration must be carried out before general elections are held.
Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, at an AFC press conference on January 16 had objected to early elections, and said that this is because there needs to be house-to-house registration.
Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo
Jagdeo said that the government is attempting to frustrate the Constitutional deadline of March 19, which kicked in when the no-Confidence Motion was carried on December 21, 2018.
Ramjattan had said “AFC doesn’t see polls in 90 days. Both parties agreed to spend approximately $3B on a House-to-House registration process in 2019.”
Ramjattan had supported his advocacy for House-to House registration by saying that there are many persons who are dead, and should be removed from the list.
Jagdeo, in his press conference last week, said that this issue could be cleared up “simply by getting the record from General Registrar’s Office sharing these records with the two political parties, publishing their names in the newspapers. Then after two weeks, you remove the names from the list, and you clear out all the dead people.”
However, Ramjattan had also raised the contention that persons aged 15-17 at the time of the last election would now be eligible to vote, and that they should be added to the list. Jagdeo had not made mention of that issue.
Asked yesterday whether he could provide a way to have new voters registered, which would accommodate the March 19 deadline, Jagdeo suggested a one-week registration process, followed by a second week for claims and objections.
“If the desire is there, they can easily do a one-week continuous registration and urge everybody to come, starting that next week, because they have these offices already; that’s where the people go. Then, [put aside] one week more for claims and objections.
“Within two weeks, it could be fixed – an accelerated timeline. Then all those young people can have an opportunity. [They would] not necessarily go, because people have had the opportunity and they said ‘I’m not going to get registered because I’m not satisfied with this government.’”
Jagdeo said that all the solutions he has suggested “can be consistent with” the March 19 deadline.
“So, it could be fixed easily if they wanted.”
At his previous conference, the Leader of the Opposition had been asked about the nature of the circumstances under which the PPP/C would allow an extension past the Constitutional deadline, for the holding of General Elections, and he had declined to answer.
“I’m not going to speculate about any extensions. This government has a way of spinning everything in their favour. They’re creating this air of normalcy, as though nothing happened on that night. They fell, and they acknowledged that the government fell. This is a lame duck caretaker government.”
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