Georgetown: With the General and Regional Elections less than 90 days away, efforts are being increased to sanitise the list of electors.
Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield has disclosed that the ‘Claims’ subset of the process has been completed. According to him, while the Objections period officially ends on Sunday, March 1, appeals to objections could be made beyond that time.
In explaining the process, Lowenfield told media operatives on Tuesday that in accordance with the law following an objection, an elections officer informs the ‘objector’ and ‘objectee’ who are invited to a hearing at which time the requisite evidence of objection would have to be provided. He added that Registration Officers, acting as Hearing Officers, will determine whether that person stays on the list.
“This will have to be done in the divisions and sub-divisions; it will not be done centrally. What we receive from our officers will be an objection made, a hearing done and the outcome,” the CEO pointed out.
He further stated that this can be appealed in the case of dissatisfaction. This process will be chaired by Lowenfield himself as Commissioner of National Registration. The Commission is encouraging political parties and the general public to come forward with objections to persons who should not be on the list.
The conclusion of this process will lead to the compilation of the Revised List of Electors, which should be available on or by March 10.
“Once completed, this will be posted for 21 days,” Lowenfield told the media at a press conference last week, noting that this would give stakeholders a second opportunity for review.
There have been 3200 new registrants and 3000 requests for transfers during this latest round of the Claims and Objections Period. As of now, there is a total of 567,125 registered voters as against the 492,123 listed in 2011. This means there are 75,000 new registrants.
Reservoir nearly filled
Meanwhile, the CEO has said the intended reservoir of polling day staff is almost full.
According to him, there are shortfalls in Districts One, Four and Six, with Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) requiring some 1000 Polling Day staff still.
“We have utilised other media of ensuring that these vacancies are filled; it’s the best we can do at this point in time. All things being equal we are hoping to have all these persons trained to be employed on a temporary basis from April 2nd,” he expressed.
Lowenfield had earlier said some 1623 more persons are needed to make up the complement of staff. He told reporters then that the intent was to hire 12,000 persons to man the more than 2200 polling stations across the country.
According to him, these staff, most of whom have already started to undergo training, will also be involved in ‘mock polls’ to ensure accuracy on May 11.
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