GECOM to discuss CEO’s proposal for extension to correct Register of Voters at special meeting Thursday

Dec 07, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is scheduled to hold discussions on the proposal by its Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Vishnu Persaud for there to be a 14-day exercise to correct the Register of Voters (voters list) for the upcoming local elections.

The discussion is scheduled for Thursday during a special meeting of the Commission, Commissioner Vincent Alexander confirmed.

Persaud’s proposal is in response to the Court Action filed by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition calling for the current voters’ list for LGE to be scrapped due to various legal concerns.

The CEO in a letter to the Chair urged that the electoral body gives consideration to the delaying of holding Local Government Elections to facilitate corrections to the Registers of Voters.

Chairman of GECOM, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh

Persaud’s letter comes days after the APNU+AFC Coalition approached the court seeking several declarations and four orders intended to nullify the preliminary list of electors and give rise to a new Register of Voters, before Local Government Elections (LGE) are held.

Persaud in his letter to the GECOM chair warned that as a major election stakeholder, the Coalition’s concerns should not be ignored and as such, he set out several proposals to cure the defects on the lists.

In his letter, Persaud told Singh that whereas the Registers of Voters (RoVs) for all 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs), have been extracted in accordance with the provision of Section 5(6) of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2000, her attention should be drawn to the APNU+AFC court action.

In this regard, Persaud underlined that the “APNU+AFC is a major parliamentary stakeholder in the conduct of elections in Guyana, in this case, overdue Local Government Elections. This Coalition is concerned that, notwithstanding the provision of Section 5(6) of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2000, the current RoVs were not extracted in compliance with the provisions outlined in the Local Authority (Elections) Act, Cap. 28:03.”

The GECOM CEO said the main concern of the APNU+AFC, as has been repeatedly raised by Commissioner, Charles Corbin at Statutory Meetings of the Commission, is that the electorate was denied the opportunity to scrutinize the RoVs, with specific reference to the constituency RoVs.

More, Persaud said specifically, it appears that the APNU+AFC is concerned that members of the public were not given the opportunity to (i) claim entry in the respective constituency RoVs, providing they qualify for such inclusion based on residency, and (ii) object to the inclusion of electors in constituency RoVs who do not meet the residency requirement for such inclusion.

Meanwhile, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) , in a Press Release said that it “will not be opposed to GECOM embarking upon another round of Claims and Objections in respect of the Register of Voters for the upcoming Local Government Elections proposed to be held in 2023”.