Changes to RLE legal and within the statutory period – GECOM
DPI, GUYANA, Thursday, January 23, 2020
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) today said it is perturbed by the recent attempts to discredit the production of a credible Official List of Electors (OLE) for the conduct of General and Regional Elections 2020.
It said while some sections are accusing the commission of “a deliberate ploy to create confusion and mayhem,” it is cognizant that their sole intention is to disenfranchise thousands of eligible electors who participated in the House-to-House Registration Exercise. This, GECOM assured, will not happen.
According to GECOM, Regulation 37 of the National Registration (Residents) Regulations Act, Chapter 19:08 provides for the Commissioner of National Registration to make corrections to the Revised List of Electors.
It states, “If within the period of twenty-one days after he had certified lists, the Commissioner is satisfied that any entry or omission in any list as revised pursuant to regulation 35 is incorrect through inadvertence in the course of such revision, he shall make or cause to be made the requisite correction to that list and such copy thereof as is open for inspection at any registration office and the Commissioner shall give to the person to whom such correction relates notice thereof, which may be sent by registered post to his last known address.”
Considering the legal provision as outlined above, GECOM said it is confident in its system which is vital to ensuring that persons who had changes done to their addresses, during the House-to-House Registration exercise, are in accordance with the law and does not fall outside of the statutory period.
The Commission said it has a duty to ensure that the information of all electors is accurately reflected on the Official List of Electors to avoid confusion.
“If that process is not done, Electors would be required to travel to their old addresses to vote. As such, those persons would be displaced and disenfranchised which could result in low voter turnout and questionable election results,” the commission said
GECOM is, therefore, urging the electorate to be extremely vigilant of the attempts by a few to create confusion, mischief and derail the level of public confidence in it.