The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has made a decision to extend its Claims and Objections exercise by seven days, following a meeting between the Commissioners on Wednesday.
The Guyana Elections Commission
In a statement on Wednesday, GECOM explained that the decision to extend Claims and Objections by a week is for persons to have further opportunities to make changes to the voters’ list.
Those wishing to make a claim for inclusion on the Official List of Electors have until September 21, 2022 to do so. Meanwhile, those wishing to make an objection to someone on the voters’ list have until September 25.
“Further, objections against the inclusion of names in the PLE [Preliminary Voters List} can be tendered to the Registration Officer of the Registration Area. Objection(s) can be submitted by an Elector who is listed in the same Division list /Sub Division list in which the person being objected to is listed.”
“Objections can also be made by approved Scrutineers of Political Parties provided that any such Scrutineer has monitoring responsibilities for the Division/Sub Division in which the person being objected to is listed,” they further said, explaining that an original death certificate must be presented at the hearing, to support the objection being made.
A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander had recently penned a letter alleging that GECOM Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh, supported moves to block the extension of Claims and Objections during GECOM’s statutory meeting on Tuesday.
But in a joint statement on Wednesday, People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)-nominated GECOM Commissioners Sase Gunraj, Manoj Narayan and Clement Rohee denied this and lent clarity on the issue of the extension.
The Commissioners were adamant that at no time did the Chair vote against or attempt to block the extension. Instead, they said that at Tuesday’s statutory meeting, a decision was taken to consult with the PPP/C on the granting of the extension.
“For the record, we were all present at GECOM’s statutory meeting… when the Chair of GECOM informed the Commissioners that the Chief Elections Officer received a letter dated the 13th of September, 2022, from APNU+AFC requesting an extension of Claims in the ongoing Claims and Objections process. The Commission thereafter held discussions to determine whether the request should be granted.
“The decision taken by the Chair of GECOM is that the Chief Elections Officer immediately writes to the PPP/C and other parliamentary opposition parties informing them of the request of APNU+AFC and soliciting their views. This decision was not done to have the “PPP/C determine whether citizens can realize their rights”, as contended by Commissioner Alexander in his letter but was done in the interest of fairness and transparency and to inquire whether other stakeholders’ political parties experienced similar issues during the Claims process as those experienced by APNU+AFC.”
This letter was dispatched by the CEO after the meeting and by Wednesday, following the receipt of the PPP/C response, GECOM took its decision to extend the exercise. In light of this, the commissioners slammed Alexander for his letter and demanded an apology and retraction.
Objections
Meanwhile, this publication understands that since Claims and Objections started on August 22, there have been seven objections filed. This is despite the fact that the APNU/AFC Opposition has been arguing that the current voters’ list is bloated, with, among other things, the names of dead persons, and needs to be cleansed.
However, the GECOM Chairman had posited that the list is not bloated. In fact, she had said in a recent interview with the media that, even if it were bloated, this process would allow for objections to those persons who should not be on the said list.
“Everyone on the list, the people were there. They weren’t bloated. They were legally there on the list. And if the list is bloated, well, we’re moving now to Claims and Objections. People will have a chance to object to who shouldn’t be there,” the Chairperson said.
GECOM has been working on holding Local Government Elections (LGE) by this year end. However, there is a workplan being examined by the Commission, that proposes holding it early next year.
LGE, which are usually due every two years, was last held in 2018. At the last LGE in November 2018, the then People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This followed the holding of the LGE in 2016, during which the PPP/C also claimed the majority of the LAAs.(G3)
