GECOM seems to be working with alacrity to produce a voters’ list

Dear Editor,
The current GECOM cycle of Continuous Registration exercise has gained momentum, allowing updates to a verifiable Register of Registrants (RoR). There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from the public, particularly the youths in this respect, and this is most heartening. The updated Register would be available for scrutiny during the Claims and Objections period legislatively prescribed to follow, and will ultimately lead to a Voters List that could facilitate the holding of Local Government Elections.
This subject, however, has not been without contention, due to seeming slothfulness regarding removal of the names of deceased people from the RoR. While this position is acknowledged by all parties, a recent Stabroek News’ Editorial attempted to cast shades of grey and splash blame on major political parties. Please, therefore, allow me to briefly expound reasons why this editorial, and the approach by the PNCR as the main critique, requires contextual review
The demands for a clean RoR, and by extension Voters’ List, is indeed the pursuit of the PPPC, and should be of interest to all contesting electoral parties in Guyana. Our country’s political history, however, is replete with too many deliberate PNC demonstrations of democratic indecency, and actions are solely driven by that party’s convenient party paramountcy.
The emboldened undercurrent behaviour of the latter never relents, and cannot be swept under the table under the pretext of a bloated list.
The convenience of David Granger’s unilateral appointment of James Patterson as GECOM Chairman arguably created a fiasco that was never designed to clean the Voters’ List, but rather to realise greater imbalance, while extending the coalition’s tenure in Office. There was no objective plural agreement or support for the PNC-directed bullish approach, or rather objective proposals.
In 2019, approximately four years into its term, Patterson approved the commencement of the House-to-House registration approach to re-creating the RoR, knowing fully well that it would have taken more than two years to complete, while disenfranchising thousands of Guyanese citizens. This absolutely could not work, as all of the GECOM elections would have had to await the outcome and delays.
Guyana is not unique among numerous states practising democracy but having variances. What is not being mentioned by the aggressive critics is that all parties have representatives in the places of poll, and they function as a countercheck to prevent the exhumation of the allegedly dead people in the places of poll.
Notwithstanding, PPP General Secretary Dr Bharrat Jagdeo’s concrete proposal for the cleansing of the list and the removal of dead persons’ names from the list are most welcome. He contends that with the tremendous improvement and efficient functioning of the General Registrar Office (GRO), we will have a more efficient and legitimate removal mechanism regarding dead persons’ names from the List.
The PNC, particularly all those who are in politics for decades and are calling for a clean Voters’ List, must come up with concrete proposals and let the nation work together towards this end.
In observing the PNC’s duplicity, it is of note that during 2008-2009, GECOM conducted a thorough House-to-House Registration exercise, resulting in the production of a new and updated Identification Card. That RoR was accepted by all, and elections were held in 2011, and again in 2015.
Further, immediately after the APNU/AFC Coalition took power, they went to the Parliament and strengthened the process by amending the legislation to ensure that the Continuous Registration exercise will use an extended period of six months to validate the Register of Registrants.
The APNU/AFC did this without the required level of consultation, or the involvement of the PPP/C. They went into full action mode without the PPP/C’s meaningful participation, and held the Local Government Elections in 2016. In addition, the PNC-APNU/AFC went forward with the same paramount party power and unilaterally made changes and added more LOCAL AUTHORITY AREAS for the 2018 LGEs. Significantly, the PNC, as expected, dumped the AFC and contested the 2018 LGEs by itself. But this did not stop the PPP/C from humiliating them in the Local Government Elections.
In December 2018, the PPP/C moved the famous “No Confidence Motion.” The infamous victory results of the MOTION certainly upset all the Coalition Government’s plans. The PNC was determined to stay in office, although it had reduced power. As usual, the PNC returned to its old habits of trying to ‘bully’ itself to stay in office as the Government. Further, the PNC utilised the Judiciary/Courts to its full advantage to buy more time in office. However, the corruption, racism, discrimination, white colour crime, and controlling influence over persons involved in the GECOM Secretariat enabled the Coalition Government to stay in power for a further period, particularly the (never-forgetting) five unforgettable months.
Guyanese will never forget the attempts to postpone the Elections by starting an illegal House-to-House Registration. The manipulation of the Guyana Elections Commission, and the GECOM Secretariat in particular, must never be allowed to operate in such a shameful manner.
All the calls for a better RoR and voters List are evidence of the activation of approaches to ‘dogged’ Elections. Let us face the polls in a free and fair manner for the upcoming LGEs.

Sincerely,
Neil Kumar