Several stakeholders and members of civil society are concerned about the status of elections’ preparedness and continue to express dissatisfaction and outrage at the pace of distribution of identification cards and at the number of unregistered voters, Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon said on June 22.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon
Dr Luncheon, also head of the Presidential Secretariat, said government continues to review on a regular basis preparation for general and regional elections. He noted that the issue of acquiring source documents from the General Registrar’s Office (GRO) in order to register is also a recurrent plague to the preparation exercise.
“The finalisation of the list subsequent to the inclusion of information from the claims and objections period is expected, and results are urgently awaited by Cabinet.” The Cabinet secretary disclosed that the claims and objections period and indications of unanimity among commissioners on acceptance of the status quo did not escape government’s attention.
This is the third occasion in just a few months that government has had cause to publicly express its concern over the same issues affecting the work of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Earlier this month, government had expressed apprehension at the number of unclaimed identification cards lying at GECOM offices. Dr Luncheon said Cabinet will continue to monitor the list of uncollected cards, and the administration is peeved at the incomplete registration of voters, based on a number of issues.
“A review seems to suggest that registrants requiring identification documents are not decreasing. In fact, there seems to be an increase,” he said.
According to the Cabinet secretary, some of the problems faced by registrants include delays in sourcing documents from the GRO and inaccuracies on birth certificates. Since the system does not allow for persons without ID cards to vote, Dr Luncheon explained, representation may be made in the circumstances if documents are not made available in a timely manner.
Political parties had also stepped up calls to supporters, stressing the importance of collecting outstanding identification cards from GECOM. There have been enhanced strategies employed by political parties, and unique interventions by GECOM to have ID cards uplifted by stragglers.
GECOM has also testified to responding well in getting persons registered and ensuring that a significant number of cards are distributed to their owners.
But with preparation for elections intensifying, 38,000 persons are still unregistered and 43,000 are yet to uplift their identification cards. GECOM Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally said that the commission has gone as far as distributing birth record forms from the GRO to persons in outlying areas. However, there are people who are not interested in being registered, Dr Surujbally said. He explained that there is currently no rush to decommission old identification cards, but the matter is engaging the commission’s attention. Surujbally added that persons who are without ID cards but are on the list of electors will not be disenfranchised from the voting process.
