Work plan on H2H Registration shows exercise will run into 2020 – Jagdeo

…alleges underage, foreign nationals being registered
…UN body says new list will not have credibility as old

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday stated that the “illegal” House-to-House (H2H) Registration currently ongoing is likely to run into the first quarter of 2020, which is way beyond the time to host General and Regional Elections so stipulated by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

This, he noted, is according to a work plan of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) which was created some time ago.
Despite objections from the Opposition and other stakeholders, GECOM went ahead and started fresh registrations last Saturday. The Commission said the exercise will last some three months.
The Opposition Leader shared the two-page document which detailed a list of activities to be done leading up to and during this exercise and the number of days for each activity. He pointed out that the work plan contained a 290-day period for the registration exercise, which Jagdeo explained will run until February 2020, thus, further delaying the early elections constitutionally due on or before September 18, 2019.
“If you go down this list, you will see from the timeline laid out here when they should start House-to-House Registration. They have been late on that and so they were delayed one month; it was supposed to start in June and its now July. So, you have to add to this timeline, one month and that takes us to end of January 2020. And you will see… number 42 (on the list) is to produce voters’ ID (Identification) Cards and they have 60 days for that. That would take us to February 18, 2020. So, this GECOM’s timeline, 290 days for House-to-House registration,” he stated.
According to Jagdeo, GECOM will be spending the next six months to get a voters list, when there is already one available that can be sanitised through an extended Claims and Objections period. This, he explained, was reaffirmed as recent as earlier this week by the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield and as far back as May 2018 by a United Nations (UN) Needs Assessment Mission.
The visiting mission did an assessment on Guyana’s electoral needs following a request for assist from GECOM and reported in its report that, “…there is no certainty that a new voters’ list will have more credibility than the current list and that stakeholders will trust it more. Furthermore, any list created close to the elections will likely to be criticised as political motivated”.
In fact, Jagdeo at Thursday’s press briefing went on to say that already, the currently registration exercise is a cause for concern.
“I’ve heard nightmare stories that in some areas about underage people being registered, foreign nations being registered and I wonder if this is the aim of APNU, that is, to create enough confusion about the list… You don’t know if you’re gonna get on the new list because the enumerator may not come to your home or you may be out the country or you may be in another part of the country,” he stated. He noted that these foreign nationals are not qualified to be registered since they only recently arrived in Guyana.
Since starting fresh House-to-House exercise on Saturday, GECOM say already some 20,000 Guyanese have been registered.
However, the Opposition Leader asserted that the information gathered during this process will be scrapped since it is an “illegal” exercise which goes against not only the Constitution, but the recent rulings and orders of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which said that the elections body should be preparing for the hosting of polls to be held three months after its June 18, 2019 ruling.
In fact, Jagdeo said, as it is, House-to-House registration is being done when there is no functioning Elections Commission in place, since it is without a chair and is not being scrutinised on the ground by the Opposition, despite there being a requirement in the enumeration forms for political scrutineers to sign after each registration.
To this end, the Opposition Leader reiterated his party’s – the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) – decision not to be complicit by partaking in the illegal exercise.
“I heard that they are threatening to charge people. They cannot charge 50,000 people and 100,000 people; and especially, they can’t force you to participate in an act that, as far as we’re concerned, is illegal. Should they try to strong-arm people, then please notify us so we can take legal actions,” he stated while also warning the Guyana Police Force not to be complicit in undermining both the Constitution and the country’s highest Court.
Furthermore, Jagdeo maintained that the Opposition will not be returning to Parliament to extend the caretaker Government’s life. He noted that had the coalition acted in good faith since the December passage of the No-Confidence Motion, this could have been done then. But instead, Government wasted taxpayer’s money and time to go to the Court, and in the end, is refusing to abide by the rulings.