Opposition’s non-participation in Claims and Objections exercise contradicts bloated list claims – AG

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, SC, said the non-participation of the APNU+AFC in the claims and objections exercise shows that the allegations of a bloated list are false.

The legal affairs minister was at the time speaking during his televised programme ‘Issues in the news’ streamed on Tuesday. 
Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton, had revealed recently, that the APNU+AFC did not participate in the claims and objections exercise which was concluded on September 21.

“He can’t do that because what he’s saying is not right. He can’t do because one, he’s lazy, that’s the first thing […] What he’s alleging is not true, so he can’t go and remove nobody off the list legally through the claims and objection period,” Minister Nandlall explained.

The AG reminded that in 2015, it was the same APNU+AFC that attempted to take 1,500 names of persons from Moraikobai, Region Five, off the list, claiming that those persons were dead.

“We had to bring the 1,500 people down with boat – 65 miles up the Mahaicony River… and bring them to Region Five, to show that they were alive, to reject their claim…”, the minister said.

He also noted that this was the same list that earned the APNU+AFC a one-seat majority during the 2011 General and Regional Elections.

“It’s the very bloated list that won them the elections in 2015. It wasn’t bloated then? It’s the same list,” he reasoned.

 Minister Nandlall said every argument of the Opposition Leader can be dissected and demolished as there is no intelligent argument.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) had extended the claims and objections exercise to seven days, concluding on Sunday, September 21.

The Claims and Objections exercise within the continuous registration process is conducted at the registration offices and sub-offices for a specified period. This exercise provides eligible electors, who did not register, the opportunity to gain entry to the list of electors or to update their particulars (transfers and changes) and it also provides the opportunity for objections to particulars in the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).