GECOM processed over 19,000 transactions during 1st continuous registration exercise for 2024

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) commenced its first continuous registration exercise for 2024 in January. It catered for eligible persons at all of its permanent Registration Offices countrywide. This registration exercise will conclude on May 31.
So far, a total of 19,656 transactions have been processed under the respective categories. New registration for persons 18 years and older amounts to 6,396; registration for applicants 14 to 17 years old amounts to 2,894; changes or corrections to registration information amount to 1,731; transfer applications are 1,941; applications for replacement ID Cards are 6,192, and just about 502 persons have applied for photo retakes.

During an interview with this publication, GECOM Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward underscored the importance of ensuring that new applicants are added to the official list of electors ahead of the 2025 General and Regional Elections.
Apart from being issued with a National Identification Card, once you register, you are entered into the National Register of Registrants database. And so, once you are in that database, it affords you the opportunity at the time of an election to participate in the electoral process, she explained.
You can only participate in that electoral process once you register, so it is on that premise that persons are encouraged to ensure that they apply for registration, once they’re eligible to do so, Ward explained.
Further, she explained that there were no issues with any applicant s registration transaction, and an identification card was produced no later than six weeks from the time of the application.
She also explained that registrants who have applied for a change or correction to their registration records, or a replacement ID Card, can check with the Registration Office within two weeks of their application to uplift their ID Card.
In this regard, GECOM is advising all persons who have applied for registration to check with the respective Registration Office where they had applied: to enquire about the availability of their National Identification Card and to ensure that they uplift same at their earliest convenience.
We have 29 offices across the country, and we have recorded what I would call a constant flow of applications daily. We have not recorded any hiccups in our system in relation to the processing of these registration transactions. Well, for new registrants, the process usually takes about six weeks, because there (is) some mandatory legal and administrative processing that must be done, which includes the fingerprint cross-matching exercise. That is not done in Guyana, but fingerprint cross-matching is an essential component in that it allows us to use biometric information to ensure that we have one and the same person on the database, so we don’t have two John Jones or two Peter Pauls. We must have one person on that database, so that fingerprint cross-matching exercise is very critical in our process, Ward added.
The second continuous registration exercise for 2024 will commence in July and conclude in November, and this is catered for under Act 26 of the amended National Registration Act of 2022, which paves the way for two cycles of continuous registration to be held annually.
During this registration exercise, any person who would be 14 years and older, and is a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent or naturalization, or is a citizen from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more, can apply for registration, providing he/she had never previously been registered.
Further, existing registrants who are desirous of updating their records, such as a request to correct or change their names, dates of birth, occupation, and update their addresses, are advised that those transactions would also be facilitated during this exercise.