Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Vishnu Persaud has revealed that the police probe is continuing into the irregular registration transaction that was discovered last month, whereby an individual fraudulently applied for a Guyanese Identification Card (ID).
Addressing a news conference on Monday, Persaud said he received an update from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and was informed that legal advice is being sought from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).
“They have already collected statements from all of the persons concerned…they are at a stage of submitting a report to the DPP for advice and it is only then [they] will be able to give me an update on this matter,” the CEO explained.
Last month, GECOM acknowledged the discovery of a situation involving the processing of an application for a replacement ID Card and change of address, by one person using the registration particulars of another registrant/elector. This led to the registration records of the legitimate registrant/elector being altered without his involvement.
The issue was discovered after the affected registrant noticed the unauthorised change to his particulars on the Official List of Electors (OLE) and reported the incident to GECOM.
The GECOM Secretariat launched an investigation into the incident. An in-person discussion was held with the involved registration officials.
In a subsequent statement, GECOM said following an investigation by the Secretariat, it was determined that the situation was due to non-compliance with established procedures at the level of the concerned registration offices.
The occurrence happened at a registration office in Region Four.
According to GECOM “it was determined that there was a breach of the standard operating procedures by registration staff throughout the system”, while “the staff who interacted with the person who visited the office to make the applications could not provide logical explanations for his actions in the matter.”
As such, GECOM contacted the Police and invited them to carry out investigations to determine whether actions of the concerned registration officials amount to a criminal offence. GECOM said that the necessary remedial action was taken, which is statutorily permissible during the prescribed 21-day period for the display of the Registered Lists of Electors (RLE), and the unlawful transactions were reversed.
The fraudulent ID card that was prepared was still in the Commission’s possession and the Commission noted that the Card was scheduled to be destroyed.
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