9,500 eligible voters transfer home addresses ahead of general elections

Last Updated on Tuesday, 29 October 2019, 12:24 by Writer

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) says almost 4,000 additional persons have been registered and more than 9,500 eligible voters have transferred their home addresses, as the claims and objections period winds down.

Spokeswoman for the electoral management agency, Yolanda Ward says 3,924 persons have added their names to the National Register of Registrants and will be qualified to vote – reaching the required voting age of 18 – by December 31, 2019.

GECOM says 9,516 eligible voters, who are already on the National Register of Registrants, have transferred their addresses to where they currently live.

GECOM says of the 17,243 transactions, 1,672 have changed or corrected their information and 1,627 have asked for replacement identification cards, 472 retook their photos and there were 32 objections.

There are 646,625 names on the preliminary list for claims and objections. A GECOM elections commissionner has already said the names of persons would not appear twice on the final voters’ list because the last address of registrants through the house-to-house process would be used.

Ward said the list of more than 370,000 persons, who were registered during the house-to-house exercise in July and August, has been published in two parts. These are category A which is made up of persons under 18 years old and Category B who are 18 and older and so can make claims now.

“The list from house-to-house registration is currently being displayed for public scrutiny and for persons to verify their information. If there are changes to their information they should visit the GECOM office in their area to update accordingly,” the GECOM spokeswoman said.

The opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has formally asked GECOM to take down the list of house-to-house registrants, saying there is no legal basis for having it.

General and regional administrative council elections, prompted by a no-confidence motion, are scheduled for March 2, 2020.