As the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) completes another phase of its election preparation, it announced that it would be ready to hold the elections by mid- October. Chairman of the commission, Dr Steve Surujbally, made the disclosure while speaking to media at a press conference on Wednesday.
“However, we do not define the date of the elections, His Excellency the President does that,” Surujbally clarified. He explained that the latest date election could be held is December 28, 2011, through a three-month legal extension of the life of Parliament, which expires on September 28.
During the claims and objections period that ended on June 12, there were 16,573 new registrants, 2137 transfers, 5,137 name changes/ corrections, and approximately 866 objections lodged. However, Dr Surujbally explained that the objections are decreasing as some persons are withdrawing their objections; pointing to one community where more than 100 of the objections were withdrawn.
“The applications for new registration, change/ corrections and transfers are currently being processed by our registration division, while hearings are currently being conducted with respect to the objections at the level of the registration officer,” he stated.
Now the commission will be moving to prepare the fingerprints of the registrants to be sent overseas for cross- matching with those on the National Register of Registrants to check for multiple registrations. The commission chairman revealed that the approved new registrants will be added to the Preliminary List of Electors to create the Revised List of Electors (RLE) and produce ID cards respectively.
“The finalisation of the RLE, which is subject to interventions… would become the indisputable OLE, as is our primary focus at this time,” Surujbally declared.
In the meantime, GECOM is said to be continuing its focus on some key activities, including training and hiring of Polling Day staff, finalising logistics plan for the elections and security matters.
Dr Surujbally said that there has never been a request by any of the political parties to extend the date of the C& O period, neither has the commission decided to do so. At this point, he had documented the particulars of the approximately 38,000 who could not apply for registration because they were not in possession of source documents, and shared this with the General Register Office and the political parties in Parliament. “We had requested of them that they take all possible action towards ensuring that the concerned persons could apply for registration.
“He added that the commission had also sought and participated at meetings involving key stakeholders, including the registrar general, to place emphasis on the need for the situation to be addressed. “The registrar general had been adamant (and we have since been convinced) that her office was treating efficiently with applications for registration, but that birth certificates cannot be issued to persons whose births were not registered, nor can birth certificates be issued to persons who have not applied.”
Surujbally said, too, that the Registrar General had given the assurance that the GRO was working beyond the normal call of duty to treat with applications for birth certificates that were in its possession and that the registrar was equally adamant that there was no backlog in the processing of applications for birth certificates.
“We had emphasised since before the implementation of continuous registration in 2005 – and prior to and during every subsequent registration exercise – that all persons were eligible for registration then and now, but who are not in possession of the relevant supporting document( s) must take immediate steps to acquire the said documents in order for them to apply for registration. We have been pleading for the persons to get their source documents for almost six years now,” Surujbally stressed.
