Guyana Elections Commission Says House-To-House Registration To End Saturday

GEORGETOWN. Guyana, August 27, 2019 (CMC) – The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) announced, today, that the house-to-house registration exercise, implemented on July 20, will come to an end on Saturday.

Newly appointed GECOM Chairperson, retired justice Claudette Singh, who made the announcement, said, based on the ruling of the High Court on August 14, that the house to house registration was neither unlawful nor unconstitutional, the data garnered from that registration exercise must be merged with the existing National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).

GECOM said that it acknowledges the motion of no-confidence motion, passed in the National Assembly, last December 21, against the David Granger coalition government, had triggered a number of legal challenges in the local courts and concluded with a ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the country’s highest and final court.

The CCJ validated the no-confidence motion, adding that it could not insist on the polls being held on any specific date for the election and, instead, urged all stakeholders to work within the Guyana Constitution to ensure the polls are held, in a timely manner.

Under the Guyana Constitution, the elections should have taken place 90 days after the vote of no confidence was passed.

GECOM said that cognizant of all that has transpired, over the past months, it has an obligation to produce a credible Official List of Electors (OLE) in the first instance and, ultimately, credible elections within the shortest possible time.

Justice Singh, at the Statutory Meeting of the Commission held, today, instructed the following:

1. House-to-House Registration must be brought to an end. As such, Order 25 of 2019, published in the Official Gazette, should be amended for the exercise to conclude on 31st August, 2019 instead of 20th October, 2019.
2. Based on the ruling of the Chief Justice on 14th August, 2019 that House to House Registration is not unlawful and is constitutional, the data garnered from that registration exercise must be merged with the existing National Register of Registrants Database (NRRDB).
3. In this regard, the Commission will move to an extensive Claims and Objections Exercise (C&O) before extracting the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).

GECOM said that it will continue to further deliberate on other matters of importance for the holding of the election, within the shortest possible time, and that the Secretariat will continue to implement a number of operations activities, in particular training of polling day staff and procurement of non-sensitive materials.

The main opposition People’s Progressive Party-Civic (PPP-C) has been calling for the poll to be held in October, but President Granger has said he will only announce a date when he is informed by GECOM that it is prepared to stage the election.