Breaking News! GECOM rules: House-to-house registration ends Saturday -data gathered to be merged with National Register -extensive Claims and Objections period to be held

Aug 27, 2019 News

Almost one month after being sworn in as chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh has issued a number of instructions, paving the way for possible elections before the end of the year.

GECOM’s chair, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh

According to GECOM yesterday, the former judge ordered that house-to-house registration end by Saturday, August 31st with the data gathered to be included in the current National Register.
The GECOM chair also instructed that there be an extensive Claims and Objections period for a preliminary list of electors to be extracted.

The full statement as issued by GECOM yesterday:

Data garnered from House-to-House Registration will be merged with existing National Register of Registrants Database
August 27 2019, GEORGETOWN – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has acknowledged that the no-confidence motion passed in the National Assembly on 21st December, 2018 triggered a number of legal challenges in the local Courts and concluded with a ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Cognizant of all that has transpired over the past months, GECOM has an obligation to produce a credible Official List of Electors (OLE) in the first instance and ultimately credible elections within the shortest possible time.
After considerable deliberations at the Commission on the way forward regarding the conduct of General and Regional Elections, Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, Justice Claudette Singh, S.C., C.C.H at the Statutory Meeting of the Commission held on 27th August, 2019 has instructed the following:
1. House to House Registration must be brought to an end. As such, Order 25 of 2019 published in the Official Gazette should be amended for the exercise to conclude on 31st August, 2019 instead of 20th October, 2019.
2. Based on the ruling of the Chief Justice on 14th August, 2019 that House to House Registration is not unlawful and is constitutional, the data garnered from that registration exercise must be merged with the existing National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).
3. In this regard, the Commission will move to an extensive Claims and Objections Exercise (C&O) before extracting the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).
The Commission will continue to further deliberate on other matters of importance for the holding of General and Regional Elections within the shortest possible time and Secretariat will continue to implement a number of operations activities, in particular training of polling day staff and procurement of non-sensitive materials.