People’s Progressive Party presidential candidate Donald Ramotar has commended the new system of electronic cross-matching of fingerprints that has been able to detect a number of cases of multiple registration ahead of the 2011 general and regional elections.
In an invited comment, Ramotar opined that the number of cases – approximately 100 – reported by GECOM was not significant, which is a good thing. “That is one of the good things about the biometrics… it’s a very good thing we now have the biometrics, so that we can prevent these sort of things,” Ramotar, who is also the PPP general secretary said.
According to the Guyana Elections Commission, during both of the claims and objections exercises, it had determined that multiple registration had occurred.
Twenty-seven of these were found during the last round of C&O.
A GECOM press statement on Sunday said each case of multiple registration was investigated by the GECOM Secretariat, and some were found to be deliberate. These will be handed over to the Guyana Police Force for investigation and possible prosecution, and the names and addresses of the persons involved will be published in the print media, GECOM said.
“We want to have our elections at the highest standards, and so I have no problem with those (multiple registrants) being handed over to the police,” Ramotar stated.
Serious concerns
AFC MP David Patterson
People’s National Congress Reform campaign director Joseph Harmon said the PNCR is upset about the revelations. “Anything that affects the integrity of the voters list is something (with which), as a political party, we would have serious concerns,” he added.
According to GECOM, a significant number of those cases of multiple registration involved one person applying for registration twice, at the same or different venues; or using two birth certificates with different information.
Harmon reminded that the party had raised the issue before, but the minister responsible for the General Registrar’s Office (GRO), Clement Rohee, had chided political parties for their comments, noting that the GRO falls solely under his control.
“Mr Rohee must take full responsibility for this, and explain to the nation how, under his watch, something like this happened.
“We are very upset about it,” Harmon added, in an invited comment. He told Guyana Times International that the PNCR will not take this issue “lightly”, and will further discuss it with GECOM, as it has done in the past.
The PNCR campaign director noted that issues like this put pressure on the holding of free and fair elections, and he insisted that the party will put pressure on every organisation responsible for ensuring that such elections are guaranteed.
The Alliance For Change (AFC) is also concerned at the issue of multiple registration.
AFC Member of Parliament David Patterson told Guyana Times Inernational that that party is eager to get further details, such as location and numbers.
According to him, a constant “bugbear” for the party is its inability to have a say at the level of GECOM, as it does not have a representative on the commission.
“We have no direct link to GECOM… so all we could do is assess and bring our concerns to the fore,” Patterson lamented. He said the party would assess the findings and examine how it could affect the integrity of the list, before making a comprehensive statement on the issue, which will most likely be on Wednesday, September 7, at its weekly press conference.
GECOM said that “use of two birth certificates with different information for registration has consequences that impact on the integrity of GECOM’s National Register of Registrants; as does the registration of a person with a passport which was issued on the basis of the provision of a questionable birth certificate.” The commission has since written Rohee, seeking a meeting on the issue.
The commission said it has undertaken to present examples of glaring cases of inconsistencies regarding source documents for all categories of registrants.
The GECOM Secretariat is currently finalising the Revised List of Electors (RLE), upon completion of which, the RLE will be posted at two conspicuous locations within each electoral division/sub-division for public scrutiny. Electronic copies of the RLE will be shared with political parties.
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