PPP removes residency requirement for eligible voters from law-AFC

Dec 17, 2022 News

Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan

Kaieteur News – The Alliance for Change (AFC) has sounded an alarm against Government’s removal of residency requirements for eligible voting at elections, calling the move a major blow to democracy and free and fair elections.

Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan, at the Party’s weekly Press Conference on Friday said that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government has passed amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act (RoPA) and the National Registration Act, that affect the use of house-to-house registration as a mechanism to ascertain voters’ residency.

“The has effectively subtracted out of section 6(2)(a) of the National Registration Act the express requirement which stipulated that on the qualifying date, people who are registered must be people “(a): who are resident in Guyana.”

“Further, it substituted for this mandatory residency qualification, which is the duty of GECOM to find and file, an alternative arrangement under a new Section 6(4) which stipulates “… at which registration officers shall receive: (a) the application of registration of every person eligible therefore, with and address at the date of his application in the registration division in that district or any part thereof…,” Ramjattan said.

The AFC Leader who is also an Attorney further added that as it relates to the amendment to the Representation of the People Act, the Government has by substitution of Section 2 of the Amendment Act 24 of 2022, knocked off the word ‘resident’ and replaced same with ‘with registered address’; and, for the words ‘an elector’s residence within Guyana’ substituted this with the words ‘an elector’.

Displaying a high degree of alarm and apprehension, Ramjattan continued by saying, “Further and more alarmingly, the Government has installed a new part into the Representation of the People Act in a new section 33 A (6), which now stipulates : ‘’If the Commission so directs by order, the list of Electors to choose the members of any local democratic organ (other than a regional democratic council) or Local Government Authority shall consist of names extracted from the Official List of Electors prepared under this section and registered with an address in the area of that Local Democratic Organ or Local Government Authority”

“The previous position by Section 2 (3) was that the official list of electors for any division ‘shall be the preliminary list of the electors’ resident in that division. From all appearances, the PPP missed the amendment needed for the Local Government Elections Act to complete the circle. It obviously overlooked this residency qualification therein. One has to be ordinarily resident to be a voter in the Local Government Elections, and, ‘ordinarily resident’ is given a meaning therein,” Ramjattan added.

The AFC Leader continued by saying that there is only one deduction to be made based on the actions of the Government, and that is “to have a voters list which will increasingly be bloated each year to come, and which will be abused via impersonations.”

Additionally, the Party’s Leader said that after noticing the Government’s intention, it sought to have the matter deferred to a Special Select Committee for deliberations. However, that request was denied.

Meanwhile, Ramjattan has accused the Government of doing the same things they were accusing the former President Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham administration of doing.

“[Former presidents] Cheddi Jagan and Janet (Jagan) and myself… So many people in the PYO [Progressive Youth Organisation] fought hard for that residency requirement,” Ramjattan said while explaining that during that era, they asserted that there must be house-to-house registration since it is the best way of knowing where people are living.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter also insisted on the aforementioned, Ramjattan said adding that “GECOM now is given what is call a carte blanche that they don’t have to do house to house; house to house has been written off.”

One expressed provision of the Constitution is that a person must be 18 years and older, registered in order to vote. Further, Article 159 (3) states that any other qualification as prescribed by law shall make a person eligible to vote.

Additionally, the AFC Leader said that the High Court ruling on this matter states that the Constitution doesn’t speak expressly about residency but questioned: “What else you want to be expressly stated when it says by any such other qualification as prescribed by law and all our laws says a residency requirement; the Representation of the Peoples Act, the National Registration Act, and even the Local Government Elections law.”

While the specific change has not been made to the Local Government Law, Ramjattan believes the Government will soon make the necessary changes there too.