GECOM work plan shows House to House exercise projected to end in 2020 – Jagdeo

Jul 26, 2019 News

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The House to House registration work plan presented to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is projected to end well into 2020, according to Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo.

Yesterday, he provided members of the media with copies of the work plan, during a press conference held at his Church Street office.
“This is a document produced by the Secretariat, and shared by [GECOM’s Chief Elections Officer] Mr. [Keith] Lowenfield with the Commission, and it has 290 days.” Jagdeo told the press.
“This work plan was shared with the commissioners some time last year. This work plan laid out a timeline for House to House registration.”
The document lists 43 items to be completed, more than half of which has been dealt with.
Of the current House to House registration exercise at No. 24 of the plan, it is stated that the intended start date was June 2, 2019 – with duration of 120 days – thereby, ending on September 29, 2019.
In reality, the exercise started last Saturday, July 20, 2019. The Order signed by former GECOM Chairman, Justice Patterson, states that that process will conclude on October 20, 2019.
After that, there are a series of other items on the plan, which need to be executed.
The undertaking of post-registration activities, at No. 29 of the document, is scheduled to start on October 3, 2019, and end on October 23, 2019. Since the actual exercise, according to the order lists a concluding date of October 20, 2019, the post-registration activities will likely go much later than planned.
Four of the items (Nos. 33-36) on the list are scheduled to conclude in November 2019. Then, from items 37-41 are set to conclude in December.
The last two items, Nos. 42-43, are not clearly printed in the documents shared to the media. But the Opposition Leader claims that No. 42, ‘Produce voters’ ID cards’ is set to take 60 days to be completed. That, he says, would be completed in February 2020.
“No. 42 is to produce voters’ ID cards… They have 60 days for that. That would have taken them to February 18, 2020, to just produce the ID cards.”
He contends that, next, GECOM would have to distribute the ID cards, and that that will take another month, pushing the completion date of the project into March 2020.
Jagdeo had said before, that even the Order signed by Patterson, for the House to House registration exercise, would be enough to prove that the execution of the exercise would cause elections to be held later than September 18, 2019.
Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire refused to grant a Conservatory Order halting the exercise, stating that there needs to be more evidence to prove that the exercise would cause the election to be held later than September 18, 2019 – three months after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)’s ruling on the No Confidence Motion. Attorney-at-Law Christopher Ram had requested that Order.
Now, the Opposition Leader has distributed GECOM’s work plan. PPP Commissioner Sase Gunraj last night, confirmed that the work plan does, in fact, list 290 days as the duration needed for its completion. He said, even then, that that is a conservative estimate.
After that, there would still need to be a period of claims and objections, the Commissioner added.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Ward, told Kaieteur News last night, that she has not seen the work plan, and that she can’t definitively say when the House to House Registration will conclude.
She had said that the process had managed to register 20,000 persons in a matter of two days, but that it’s too early to assess the pace.
Jagdeo contends that the process will need to be scrapped.
“The leadership of the People’s Progressive Party met and we decided that we would not be complicit in an act which undermines the Constitution and the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice…
“The CEO has deliberately embarked on a process that he knows will put him at odds with the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He knows this because he’s been advised about this by his own legal officer.”
Jagdeo had said, during another recent press conference, that GECOM’s legal office, Excellence Dazzell, had advised Lowenfield that the Commission would do well to prepare for elections, in accordance with the CCJ’s ruling. She had reportedly advised against the commencement of House to House registration.
“So he has embarked on a process, House to House registration, to frustrate the decision of the Caribbean Court of Justice. We cannot be complicit in this. I want to say to all Guyanese that they should not participate in an illegal activity.”
Commissioner Vincent Alexander told Kaieteur News, recently, that telling persons to refuse to register would be to encourage them to disobey a public policy law.
GECOM had been running an advertisement, which states that refusing to apply to register is an offense.
According to the National Registration Act, persons who fail to be registered can be fined or imprisoned.
“Every eligible person who refuses to make an application for registration shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of $16,250 or imprisonment for six months.”
But according to Jagdeo, “They cannot charge 50,000 people [or] 100,000 people and especially, they can’t force you to participate in an act which, as far as we’re concerned, is illegal.”

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