GECOM never provided voters list information to UK High Commissioner- APNU+AFC Election Commissioner

Last Updated on Monday, 14 November 2022, 19:31 by Denis Chabrol

The Guyana Election Commission (GECOM) never provided information about the voters list to United Kingdom High Commissioner Jane Miller who has said the existing roll can be used with safeguards at polling stations, opposition coalition Election Commissioner Vincent Alexander said at the weekend.

“Not to my knowledge. There has been no such interaction…I was asking myself who told her and you have to be careful because we are into a lot of partisan politics and if the country is caught up in partisan politics, by whom could she be told,” he said on the People’s National Congress Reform’s programme, “Nation Watch”.

Western diplomats, especially in the run-up to general and regional elections, usually meet with the GECOM Chairman, the Chief Election Officer, the President, the Opposition Leader and the Private Sector Commission.

The GECOM Commissioner cautioned the UK envoy against heeding the words of others as the only person who could have told her that the existing voters list is acceptable and there are the required safeguards had to be a partisan politician.

Mr Alexander has also accused the British envoy of interference in Guyana’s internal affairs. “It is a breach of what is required of foreign countries in relation to the internal affairs of a particular country because it certainly seeks contextually in a very partisan way to influence certain actions which are at the very kernel of our democracy-our elections and maybe seen as a level of interference in internal affairs,” said Mr Alexander, a former Central Executive member of the People’s National Congress Reform.

Opposition Leader and Leader of the People’s National Congress Reform Aubrey Norton is on record as saying that his party and Western diplomats had discussed several issues including the need for a clean voters list.

The GECOM Commissioner hoped that the UK High Commissioner could eventually say that biometrics could be one of the mechanisms that could be used at polling places to authenticate and verify the identity of each voter.

Mr Alexander said in relation to the voters list that “there is a real problem that is not being addressed”. He added that Guyana has the tradition  up to 2007 of periodic registration for the creation of a new register of registrants and the voters list.

The opposition coalition of A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change are concerned that the voters list is bloated because there are almost 690,000 names compared to Guyana’s population of 750,000.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall on Monday challenged Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton to tell his supporters in the Diaspora why he was making moves to take them off the voters list by calling for house-to-house registration. “No doubt these persons would include thousands of supporters of Mr. Norton’s party. Importantly, has he explained this to them?,” Mr Nandlall said.

While the government has refuted opposition claims of voter impersonation at the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections, Mr Alexander has said that evidence has been obtained from the Immigration Department and the General Register to prove that persons who were in Guyana or are deceased had ballots cast in their names.