Over 2,000 new registrations during claims and objections
The ongoing claims and objections exercise has seen over 2,000 transactions to date, according to GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj.
Speaking with the media after leaving the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) weekly statutory meeting on Tuesday, Gunraj –an opposition nominated commissioner –said there have been 2,127 new registrations and two objections so far to remove names from the list.
Last week, the Commission decided to make the data from the house-to-house registration available for claims and objections.
Claims and Objections will conclude on November 18, 2019.
Persons have until November 11, 2019, to make a claim to be included on the list if they are a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, naturalisation or registration, 18 years or older or will attain the age of eighteen by 31st December 2019.
A citizen of a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for a period of no less than one year preceding 31st December 2019 can also be registered to be on the list.
Government nominated Commissioner, Vincent Alexander disclosed that the Commission also resuscitated the admin. committee to deal with a host of vacancies which exist.
The vacancies he listed are: Logistics Manager, Assistant Chief Elections Officer, Research Officer and a person responsible for voter education.
“Those vacancies have been affecting the capacity of the secretariat to do its work and the admin committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesdays so we can advance the process of filling those vacancies,” Alexander said.
He explained that the positions have been vacant since last year but the recruitment process was delayed due to the lack of a GECOM Chair for some months.
Former Chairman of GECOM, Justice (rtd) James Patterson demitted the post on June 24 following a ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that his appointment was unconstitutional.
On July 29, Justice Retired Claudette Singh was appointed as the new Chairman of the Commission.
The Commissioners will also be meeting twice per week to advance the work of GECOM ahead of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, Alexander said.