The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is urging all eligible persons who have not yet registered to visit their nearest GECOM office and do so by July 8.
The registration exercises, which commenced on May 21, 2018, stemmed from an effort to ensure that all suitable persons are afforded unlimited opportunities to be included on the National Register of Registrants database while ensuring that GECOM is in a state of preparedness which would enable it to respond to calls for elections in a timely manner.
According to GECOM, any person who will be 14 years and over by October 31 of this year and is a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, naturalisation or is a citizen from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more, is eligible for registration.
For the registration process to be completed, interested persons are asked to present an original birth certificate or a valid Guyana passport and original marriage certificate or deed poll.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that baptism certificates, expired passports, photocopies of relevant documents or letters from priests, elders, head teachers, Toshaos, Justices of the Peace (JPs) and existing Identification Cards (ID) will be not acceptable as source documents for registration.
Persons 18 years and older can also request to correct or change their name, address or occupation by July 8, while July 12 will be the last day in which persons can object to a name appearing on the Preliminary List of Electors (PLE).
There will be a hearing by registration officers to determine the validity of the objections and if persons are not satisfied with the outcome, appeals will be heard by the Chief Election Officer.
Registration guarantees eligible persons their constitutional right to become registered in accordance with the relevant legal provisions and to cast their ballots at future General, Regional and Local Government Elections.
The Commission is also urging persons to desist from unlawful practices as there are reports of persons presenting themselves to be registered, claiming not to know their names, date of birth and other key personal identifying information.
The 29 registration offices countrywide are opened from Monday to Thursday between 08:00h to 17:00h, Friday between 08:00h and 16:00h and on weekends and holidays from 10:00h to 14:00h.
