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GECOM Chair should speak to press after weekly meetings – Jagdeo
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, wants Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair, Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh S.C., to speak to the press after the Commission’s weekly meetings to avoid confusion over what exactly transpired.
GECOM Chair, (ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh S.C.
During his weekly press conference at his Church Street office, Jagdeo spoke of concerns that there is a process at GECOM which could lead to the disenfranchisement of the people.
That refers to two matters currently before the Commission, for which the decisions could see thousands of names being removed from the list.
The first is about potentially removing names of registrants GECOM has not been able to verify since 2008, due to their failure to uplift their ID cards.
Commissioner Charles Corbin had told Kaieteur News that GECOM made at least two separate attempts at different times in different years to find these persons, but was unsuccessful.
He had said that those efforts did not substantially reduce the number of persons on that list. This time around, the proposal is for the Commission to follow the specific procedures laid out in the National Registration Act pursuant to the cancellation of their registration.
The other matter is about how GECOM will treat with persons who fail to show up to verify their registration information during the ongoing Claims and Objections exercise.
Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo
Three options are before the Commission, according to Corbin. The first would see unverified names being struck off of the list, meaning that they would not appear on the Revised List of Electors (RLE). The second option would see GECOM producing two lists, separating unverified names from verified names. The third option would see GECOM producing one list, with the unverified names expressly highlighted.
These matters are serious, and the decisions continue to be postponed since the last two meetings were not attended by the full Commission. Jagdeo is adamant that the public needs clarity.
Typically, the press would stake out GECOM’s Kingston headquarters and approach Commissioners when they leave the compound, since reporters are not allowed to witness the meetings.
At least one Commissioner aligned with each side of the political divide would speak with reporters, giving their account of the matters before the Commission..
Sometimes, one Commissioner may mention certain details that the other didn’t. This is what happened after the most recent meeting on Tuesday, when Corbin told reporters that the House-to-House data – finally completely encoded – would begin to be published from yesterday, for public scrutiny. Commissioner Sase Gunraj didn’t.
After that was reported, Gunraj and the other Opposition-nominated Commissioners released a statement rebuking Corbin for allegedly delivering that report to the press as though it was a decision of the Commission.
“We were present from the beginning to the end of that GECOM meeting and we wish to emphasise, most vehemently, that no such decision was taken,” the statement read.
Justice Singh has never approached the press after the statutory meetings.
Jagdeo said that the Chair, “who came into office with enormous goodwill”, should live up to her role of ensuring Guyanese are not kept in a state of disquiet.
He said that the public needs to be constantly educated, and that the conduct of elections “is not about what takes place behind closed doors”, but about the involvement of the public.
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