No tampering with registrants’ database or plan to rig election -GECOM Chairman

Last Updated on Wednesday, 8 January 2020, 18:39 by Writer

Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Retired Justice Claudette Singh on Wednesday rebuffed claims by associates of the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) that there is tampering with the National Register of Registrants (NRR) database to rig the March 2 general elections.

“No one is tampering with the NRR DB (database) at GECOM,” she said, adding that “GECOM does not wish to rig any election.” Singh explained that there existing registrants on the preliminary voters list, names on the revised list of electors and previously registered persons with no changes and others whose names were not changed.

She said the latest registration information is being used to update the list and so “no one is tampering with anything.”

Singh explained that the names of persons, who have not collected their identification cards, would be placed on the voters list.

Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield said identification cards would be produced for those persons who had registered during the July-August, 2019 house to house exercise.

Singh says all the names of the new registrants, whether or not they were found during the recent house-to-house verification exercise, and those who have not collected their national identification cards from 2008 to present will be part of the final voters’ list. “Their names would be on the RLE (Revised List of Electors). They will be allowed to vote if they return, but they will come with some form of identification and they will have their folio there too,” the GECOM Chairman said.