Dear Editor,
I want to make a special appeal to every citizen: to ensure they get registered during the ongoing continuous registration cycle that was recently announced by the Guyana Elections Commission.
It’s your constitutional right and civic duty to ensure that every single member of your family and household is properly registered, once they meet the registration criteria.
In this case, once a child will be 14 years old and older by October month-end this year, that child is eligible to become registered under the laws of Guyana. This also applies to the thousands of young Guyanese and persons who were registered during the 2019 house-to-house registration cycle but are being encouraged to reapply now.
I know persons would want to drag their feet and say they have time to comply with the law, but they should utilise this current opportunity to get registered. After all, there are numerous benefits to be derived, such as getting access to an identification card, and making sure your name is safely placed on the voters’ list.
It will cost nothing. It also takes up a minimal amount of time to get down to a GECOM registration office with the necessary source documents.
Those documents, I believe, are the original birth certificate, valid passport, adoption certificate, or naturalisation certificate in the case of making an application for new registration. You can even get a name change if you present an original marriage certificate or deed poll with your birth certificate.
I also want those existing registrants who are desirous of updating their records: such as a request to correct or change their names, dates of birth, occupation, or to update their addresses, to go to the registration centres, as I understand GECOM is supposed to facilitate their requests during this exercise.
The exercise began on March 7, 2022 and will culminate on May 29, 2022. Don’t let anyone stop you from registering and getting yourself in order. You can do it today and save yourself the stress and hardship of not being registered on time.
Yours truly,
Michael Younge
