Georgetown: Chair of Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), (ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh S.C. in response to opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo’s call for her to host press briefings said she will address the country about the matters facing the Commission, but only when decisions are made after a vote.
There had been yet another disagreement between certain Commissioners over their representations of matters before GECOM.
Typically, the press would stake out GECOM’s Kingston headquarters and approach Commissioners when they leave the compound, since reporters are not allowed to witness the meetings.
At least one Commissioner aligned with each side of the political divide would speak with reporters, giving their account of the matters before the Commission.
It is thought that the Chair’s addresses will bring clarity to discussions of the Commission.
However, it is not typical for the Commission to vote on decisions at every statutory meeting. So it is not likely that the Chair will address the public every week.
During his weekly press conference at his Church Street office, Jagdeo spoke of concerns that there is a process at GECOM which could lead to the disenfranchisement of the people.
That refers to two matters currently before the Commission, for which the decisions could see thousands of names being removed from the list.
The first is about potentially removing names of registrants GECOM has not been able to verify since 2008, due to their failure to uplift their ID cards.
Commissioner Charles Corbin had said GECOM made at least two separate attempts at different times in different years to find these persons, but was unsuccessful.
He had said that those efforts did not substantially reduce the number of persons on that list. This time around, the proposal is for the Commission to follow the specific procedures laid out in the National Registration Act pursuant to the cancellation of their registration.
The other matter is about how GECOM will treat with persons who fail to show up to verify their registration information during the ongoing Claims and Objections exercise.
Three options are before the Commission, according to Corbin. The first would see unverified names being struck off of the list, meaning that they would not appear on the Revised List of Electors (RLE). The second option would see GECOM producing two lists, separating unverified names from verified names. The third option would see GECOM producing one list, with the unverified names expressly highlighted.
These matters are serious, and the decisions continue to be postponed since the last two meetings were not attended by the full Commission. Jagdeo is adamant that the public needs clarity.
Justice Singh has never approached the press after the statutory meetings.
Jagdeo said that the Chair, “who came into office with enormous goodwill”, should live up to her role of ensuring Guyanese are not kept in a state of disquiet.
He said that the public needs to be constantly educated, and that the conduct of elections “is not about what takes place behind closed doors”, but about the involvement of the public.
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