PPP/C calls on citizens to expose discrepancies found on Voters List

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) is calling on all Guyanese to expose any type of discrepancies that may surface during the current Claims and Objections period in order to ensure there is a clean, accurate and credible Voters List.

The party in a statement said the first ingredient for the holding of free and fair elections is a Voters List that is aboveboard.

“We call on all Guyana to support the PPP/C’s concerns with respect to discrepancies arising out of the registration process and the production of a Preliminary List of Electors (PLE). GECOM should be reminded that political parties were given copies of the Preliminary Voters List to scrutinise. Further, it is the prerogative of political parties to monitor the current Claims and Objections exercise and to report its findings of malpractices to GECOM for their corrective action.

“It is GECOM’s responsibility to inform the public that political parties are currently carrying out house to house work to check for discrepancies on the PLE 2014.  This exercise of house to house checking of the list by political parties is a right that parties have over the years.”

Given a mandate by the electorate to represent almost half of the country’s population, the PPP/C intends to ensure that there is complete transparency during the registration process and at GECOM itself. The party had cause to write GECOM last week after its field operatives found 18 persons on the PLE with the same Georgetown address.

At the said address, they found one of the 18 people with a prepared list of the 18 that were listed. “The PPP/C find this very unusual; while it may be possible that these 18 persons are living at that address, we call on GECOM to physically verify these persons’  existence and their place of residence. The PPP/C has been submitting irregularities to GECOM on an ongoing basis rather than wait until the Claims and Objections period concludes since this period lasts for only 28 days and we are only 10 days away from its conclusion,” the party said.

The PPP/C is calling on GECOM to explain in clear terms: The drastic increase in new registrants (over 78,000) when the average annual increase of New Registrants is usually just over 11,000; what quality control mechanism was used for inputting data from the NRRD into the PLE and who did it?; why weren’t critical vacancies including those yet to be filled at the IT Department not filled and was only acted upon after questions were raised by the PPP/C?; and when will GECOM put an International Monitoring Unit (IMU) or Joint International Technical Assistance (JITA) in place to over look the inputting of critical and important data and the evaluation of such data as well?”

Lack of preparation

The PPP/C said it remains convinced that GECOM is better prepared for General Elections and not Local Government Elections, especially since GECOM’s total lack of preparations for the holding of Local Government Elections under the new electoral system.