–GECOM chair affirms her decisions are grounded in law
LEADER of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton on Tuesday side-stepped questions on what his party’s call for a “clean voters list” will entail, given the High Court’s ruling that names cannot be removed from the National Register of Registrants (NRR), from which the Official List of Electors (OLE) is made.
Speaking at his weekly virtual press conference, Norton faced questions to explain his continuous call for “a clean voters list”, and how his party, the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), expects this to be achieved. However, the politician could not give a clear answer.
“As we deal with this issue, we will unveil what we think should happen to get a clean voters list,” Norton said.
When further pressed on his thoughts on how this will happen in keeping with the court’s ruling, Norton dismissed the issue.
“The court’s ruling, as I understand it, is in a particular context; we will deal with those issues,” is all that he would offer.
In 2019, the High Court ruled that “the removal of the names of persons on the list of registrants, and who were not, or have not been, or are not registered in the current house-to-house registration exercise would be unconstitutional.”
Hence, even if a house-to-house registration process is done by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), it is barred from removing the names of anyone from the NRR, except in the case of death.
GECOM Chairman Claudette Singh, speaking at a separate event on Tuesday, also addressed the issue, noting that there will be a sufficient claims and objection period, whereby issues with the OLE can be dealt with.
She maintained that in keeping with the court’s ruling, everyone present on the NRR is legitimately there.
“I am saying everyone on the list the people were there; they were legally put on the list. If the list is bloated, we are moving now to claims and objections, and people will have a chance to object to whose not supposed to be there,” Singh commented.
GECOM is currently preparing to hold Local Government Elections (LGEs), and as such, the Commission will be holding a claims and objection period, whereby persons can highlight any concerns or discrepancies on the OLE for the purpose of addressing them.
The claims and objection period begins on August 22, 2022 and concludes on September 15, 2022, while LGEs could possibly be held as soon as November.