Jagdeo disputes GECOM’s verification figures for first-time registrants

Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday disputed figures from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that 10,329 first-time registrants were verified during the recent verification exercise.

According to Jagdeo, numbers crunched by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) indicated that only 8,000 persons were reached.

On Monday, GECOM reported that of the 16,863 persons who registered for the first time during the 2019 house-to-house (HtH) exercise, and who were earmarked for verification, 10,329 registrants were verified, while 6,534 were not.

Yesterday, however, Jagdeo told reporters that by the party’s count, over 8,000 persons were found, while around 6,000 were not at home, and therefore not reached. Jagdeo added that there were several hundred other persons who were “found to never have existed” as the addresses recorded against their names were found during verification to be empty lots.

“When we visited, we found that there were empty house lots,” he said. Jagdeo added that this state of affairs suggests that GECOM’s enumerators are responsible, and he called for those involved to be penalised.

Asked whether the PPP/C wants an extension of time for further and fuller verification, however, Jagdeo said he did not want to be premature in making a determination on that matter.

Earlier this week, the PPP/C’s Chief Scrutineer Zulfikar Mustapha told Stabroek News that the party believes that it is important for there to be proper verification of all the first-time registrants.

However, government-nominated GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander had told Stabroek News that regardless of whether or not the 100 per cent verification is achieved, GECOM must make do with whatever number it was able to verify as “nothing must interfere with the commission’s election timelines.”

Last week, by a majority comprising opposition-nominated members and Chairperson Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, GECOM decided to undertake a four-day field verification of all the new registrants recorded during the truncated national HtH registration exercise. GECOM had initiated a HtH registration exercise in July but this was truncated by Singh following a ruling by the Chief Justice that the exercise could not be used to create a new National Register of Registrants (NRR).

Opposition-appointed commissioners of GECOM had demanded the verification exercise, citing the fact that a list of over 20,000 allegedly first-time registrants from the HtH exercise was found to contain names that were already on the NRR.