2/3/2020 A maddening, bloated voters’ list – Kaieteur News

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A maddening, bloated voters’ list

 Feb 02, 2020  Features / Columnists, My Column 0 Comments

The elections are a month away. The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is putting out a Final
Voters’ List that would be severely bloated. There will be the names of dead people, many of whom
would have died since 2001.
I know at least five people whose names are on that list who have since died. Four of them are my
relatives and the other was my friend, Dr. Frank Beckles. In fact, I know many more, when I stop to
recall my other friends who have died over the past three years.
This bloated list has come about because the High Court has ruled that no name should be extracted Sports
from the list unless someone produces a death certificate.
About six thousand Guyanese die each year, the majority from natural causes. The others died on
the roads, were murdered, or died by misadventure such as a mining pit caving in or drowning.
When I first spoke about the list in the run-up to the local government elections, I was told that there
is no natural liaison between GECOM and the office of the Registrar General. I had expected that
once a death certificate was provided, then naturally, the information would have been forwarded to
GECOM. This is not the case.
There was a period of claims and objections, but the scrutineers missed so many names that I
wonder whether the exercise was worth the time and the money.
I understand that the list stands at over six hundred thousand. That is about 88 percent of the
population of voters, an impossibility when one considers the demographics. For starters, about 66 Seven athletes qualify at AAG
percent of the population is below the age of 35. CARIFTA Trials
Then we have those who are below the age of eighteen, a significant portion of that Under-35  Feb 03, 2020

population. Senior citizens make up about twenty percent of the population. By Calvin Chapman The Athletics Association of
There has been migration. Over the past two decades, more than 100,000 people have left the Guyana(AAG) held their fourth development meet
country legally for North America. Indeed, many of these can return to vote, but most wouldn’t, either of the year and first Caribbean Free Trade
because they simply cannot afford to or because they cannot be granted leave from their place of Association (CARIFTA) trials yesterday at the
employment. National Track...
When the votes are counted, I doubt whether the numbers would be higher than 375,000, about 55
Read More
percent of the number on the voters’ list.
Of course, there was supposed to be continuous registration that would have made the list as clean
6th Kares Caribbean
as possible. GECOM did find cases of multiple registrations by an individual, but nothing happened.
Fitness Challenge...
Today, some people have as many as three identification cards, with different variations of their  Feb 03, 2020
names.
There are those who got married, so on the list they would be recorded with their maiden names as
well as their matrimonial names.
Some would have regularised their status. But many would not have taken the time to do so. That Sinclair slams century for
might explain the large number of identification cards still in the possession of GECOM. GYO in drawn encounter
The house-to-house registration would have put paid to many irregularities, but from the start, the  Feb 03, 2020

political opposition was opposed to this exercise. In the end, some 300,000 persons were re-
registered. Then came the problem with having the newly registered added to the list. Among them
would have been people who would have changed addresses.
Seebarran to make
To its credit, GECOM did manage to find the duplications, but that was not enough. The result is that
radical debut this season
this promises to be the most confusing of elections.  Feb 03, 2020
There are those who believe that the ink used at the places of poll is really indelible. Enterprising
people have been known to remove the ink from their fingers. And these people do not worry about
the criminal consequences of being caught voting more than once.
I have seen the campaigns and I have seen the social media posts. Strangely, no one has GCA’s NBS 2nd division
commented on the size of the list and the potential for voter fraud. There are reports of people being 40 overs cricket...
paid to commit voter fraud.  Feb 03, 2020

And outside of the polling booths, there have been other attempts at fraud. For the past few
elections, there have been frauds inside GECOM. After the 1997 elections, it was transpired that the
statements of poll signed by the various polling agents were replaced by other unsigned statements.
This came out in court and in the end, the elections were vitiated. Billingy cops gold; Johnson,
Van Lange through to...
After the 2015 elections, there were attempts to smuggle fake statements of poll into GECOM.

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2/3/2020 A maddening, bloated voters’ list – Kaieteur News
Officials know who attempted to smuggle in the fake statements of poll, but to this day, they have not  Feb 03, 2020
 the NEWS EDITORIAL SPORTS LETTERS FEATURES / COLUMNISTS WHAT GUYANA NEEDS TO KNOW  FOLLO
disclosed name of the individual.
There were recounts of some ballot boxes, as though the people who manned them could not count
a few slips of paper sitting together in a group and sharing the information on each ballot.
When the final results were declared, the Chairman of the commission was accused of rigging the
elections. I would never understand how he could, when people representing all the political parties
were there for the final count. Features/Columnists
He chose to demit office. The people who campaigned against him have since moved to the courts,
but that matter is still pending.
I remember the diplomats representing the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Defending Mark Benschop and David
European Union, all asked that modifications be made to the electoral process. One of them said Hinds
that the new government might feel that five years is a long time. There have been no modifications
and the five years have all but passed. One of the things that affect humans is
The idea was that the count from the polling places would have been declared as they come in. That the power of perceptions. Perceptions
would have provided for a speedy declaration of the results and would have negated any post- and reality are not necessarily related
election tampering. but... more
This time around, it is back to the same thing.
To its credit, GECOM did disengage the main computer from online, because there were reports of
people breaking into it in elections past and tampering with the figures. By removing the computer,
HONESTY IS A LONELY WORD
GECOM actually safeguarded itself, but incurred the ire of some people.
Any political system which has to rely
That computer remains offline but the myriad problems remain, not least among them the
on the integrity of its personnel to
maddening, bloated voters’ list.
ensure its effectiveness is doomed to
failure.... more
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of this newspaper.)
Lies in the OAS contest: sifting the
Share this: wheat from the chaff

          By Sir Ronald Sanders If ever there

was a time in global politics when
governments did not indulge in
deliberately and... more
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2/3/2020 A maddening, bloated voters’ list – Kaieteur News
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