There are facts about the current voters list that cannot be disputed. It is true that the names of 40,000 dead people are on the list. It is true that the names of 160,000 missing or nonexistent people are on the list. It is true that the list does not have the names of thousands of young people who recently became 18.
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The PPP and the PSC are using a few arguments in defense of the list as follows:
GECOM could use information from the General Registrar’s Office to remove the names of dead people.
BUT THE FACT IS: The 40,000+ names on the list did not accumulate over the last few months. This number is as a result of accumulation over years, even as GECOM was supposedly removing the names of dead persons. GECOM process was not effective. Then there is the issue of the persons who died overseas. It is estimated that over 12,000 persons on the list died overseas since 2012, and there is no way GECOM could intelligently remove these names.
The fact is, despite the best efforts of the professionals at GECOM, we will always reach a point when the list will become putrid and must be discarded.
The 186,000 missing or nonexistent persons are in fact overseas based Guyanese who registered before migrating. Removing them is a violation of their constitutional right to vote.
THE FACT IS: 186,000 is approximately 40% of the 450,000 person clean voters list. This is an unacceptably large percentage, as pointed out by Dr Jagan, that creates fertile ground for fraud. All Guyanese have a constitutional right to have their votes counted on the basis of one man one vote. One or two thousand overseas based persons might want to assert they have rights, but their rights will jeopardize the rights of 450,000 persons to have fair elections. The rights of 2000 cannot trump the rights of 450,000.
Further, the creation of a new list does not deny these people their right to vote. They are free to present themselves in Guyana, call an enumerator, and they will be registered like all other Guyanese. Overseas Guyanese made the decision to leave the shores, and it is understandable if they have to make a little more effort to enjoy their rights as Guyanese. The fact that they made their decision to live overseas does not mean they are entitled to special treatment.
Young people could have their names added during the claims and objection period.
THE FACT IS: Claims and objection period is intended to address minor issues. Addressing several thousand omissions would be onerous and ineffective, and could result in thousands of young people being disenfranchised. Additionally, this arrangement would be placing an undue burden on young people to achieve what others achieved by just sitting in their homes. This would be creating a different standard for young people, many of whom live in the hinterland region, and will have to trek miles to reach the designated point to do their transactions.
Don’t worry with the 40,000 dead, and the 186,000 missing and nonexistent. The political parties will have polling agents who will ensure fraudulent voting does not occur.
THE FACT IS: GECOM cannot abdicate its constitutionally mandated responsibility to ensure credible elections, and depend on political parties to ensure a flawed list does not result in flawed elections. To make matters worse, the PPP runs a sophisticated fraudulent voting exercise, and it is more than likely a significant percentage of PPP attempts at fraud will succeed. The greater the flaws in the list, the higher the impact of the PPP fraudulent voting.
Some are arguing that the list is not bloated or flawed. They have gone so far as to call President Granger a liar. However, if adding 186,000 missing and nonexistent, and 40,000 dead to a list of 450,000 is not blowing, then what is? The list is definitely bloated and flawed by any international standard.
As per the ACE Knowledge Network, “The Electoral Roll should thus be at least 85% accurate with the endorsement of key stakeholders (Political parties and Local domestic observation groups) having confidence in it.” The present electoral roll in Guyana has over 40% inaccurate entries. Another standard set by ACE is the relationship between the accuracy of the voters list and the margin of victory. ACE posited that “the credibility of an election comes under threat “as the margin of victory approaches the margin of error.” In other words, the closer an election is anticipated to be, the greater the need for accuracy of the voters’ roll. This suggests that GECOM cannot deliver credible elections with a list containing more than 5,000 errors. The present list has 200,000 errors.
Some argue that the present list is ok because it was used in 2015 and the coalition won. This is not the point. Do we tell the family that survived a violent home invasion that security improvements are not necessary, because the criminals were not successful in taking all of their possessions the last time?
The 2015 elections did not reveal the true will of the people. Fraudulent voting by the PPP undermined the will of the people, and result in a mere one seat majority for the government. Charandass power to determine the outcome of the NCM is directly related to the fraudulent voting in 2015. Fraudulent voting must not be allowed to impact on our nation like this again.
It is understandable that the PPP would want this list. They have invested considerable time and effort creating a fraudulent voting mechanism based on this list. It is understandable the the Private Sector Commission would want this list. It is the business arm of the PPP, and many of its members invested considerable resources in building relationships with PPP ministers. They want payback now that the economy is about to take off.
However, the embrace of this corrupt list by new political parties is indeed puzzling. Their impact at the polls will be significantly reduced by PPP fraudulent voting. The only explanation is that all these parties are just creatures of the PPP, and they are not looking for rewards at the polls; they are hoping to have bread from the master’s table if the electoral fraud is successful.