The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is taking significant steps to ensure the integrity of the upcoming 2025 elections by working closely with the General Register Office (GRO) to verify deaths and remove deceased individuals from the Official List of Electors (OLE).
As the elections body continues to work to remove names from the list, it has seen the addition of over 6900 new voters thus far from the second phase of the continuous registration exercise currently ongoing.
Speaking with this publication on Monday, GECOM Commissioner, Clement Rohee, shared that the commission is currently discussing methodology to use to deal with the question of deceased persons on the list. Rohee emphasised that this initiative is crucial for maintaining an accurate voter registry.
“We’re working with the General Register Office so that the names of deceased persons are not included on the lists being prepared for the next elections,” he stated, highlighting that GECOM is stringently ensuring thoroughness of the process to avoid any disputes regarding living voters.”
“The claims and objection period helps us to deal with this question of deceased persons being on the list. There’s a lot of collaboration being done to ensure that we do it the right way. We don’t want to run into any uncalled-for issues, [such as] challenge to the person still being alive. If we are able to deal with that successfully then we will be able to take a number of names off the list in keeping with what the constitution dictates how it should happen because we can’t just take a person unilaterally off the voters list.”
During the claims and objections period, constituents have the opportunity to contest the inclusion of deceased individuals on the OLE. Families or other residents can present necessary documentation to GECOM to validate their claims, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the electoral roll. The last claims and objections exercise ran from July 2 to July 15, while the continuous registration process currently underway is set to last until November 29, 2024.
As of September 20, 2024, GECOM’s Public Relations (PR) Officer Yolanda Warde reported that 6,941 new voters have registered. Additionally, there have been 2,614 applications for address changes, 1,800 requests for changes in personal particulars, 6,600 applications for replacement ID cards, and 705 requests for photo retakes.
Rohee noted that coming out of the new registration exercise, GECOM is looking to increase the resources to ensure effective registration and verification in remote hinterland communities.
Rohee noted that there has been challenges with registration in the far-flung communities, however this is being handled to ensure no voter is disenfranchised.
“We’re seeing how best we can verify addresses for persons who wish to be registered, but living in the deep interior. Sometimes the persons are working days away from home so when the GECOM person goes to their village they don’t see the person or meet the person. So, we need to spend more time in the community rather than just rushing in and rushing out,” he said, indicating that additional resources—both personnel and financial—will be deployed to ensure no eligible voter is marginalised.
“Those things should not pose a problem because you don’t want to disenfranchise anyone. You want everyone who could be located, be registered in order to be allowed to exercise their franchise”.
