In light of the commencement of Continuous Registration this week by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) has called on Guyanese to ensure that they get registered.
PNCR Chairman, Shurwayne Holder expressed during a press conference on Tuesday that GECOM should fulfil the mandate of ensuring that the registration process is conducted in all regions to the full satisfaction of applicants.
“We urge all eligible Guyanese to get registered by visiting the GECOM registration office in their area with the relevant source documents. First time applicants during the 2019 House-to-House Registration have to now reapply from scratch. Get registered,” he urged.
“The Party has put measures in place to monitor the process. We nevertheless expect GECOM to ensure the registration process is conducted in all regions to the full satisfaction of applicants,” he added.
This process is necessary process in updating the List of Electors and paving the way for the holding of Local Government Elections (LGE). GECOM has 28 permanent Registration Offices located in all of the ten administrative regions.
According to GECOM, this registration exercise is of crucial importance to first time applicants, regarded as those persons who would have been 14 to 18 years of age, that were captured during the 2019 House-to-House Registration.
Any person, who will be 14 years or older by October 31, 2022, and is a Guyanese citizen by birth, descent, naturalisation or is a citizen from a Commonwealth country living in Guyana for one year or more can apply for registration, providing he or she was never registered before.
They are required to visit the GECOM Registration Office responsible for their area of residence with the relevant source documents: original birth certificate, valid passport, adoption certificate or naturalisation certificate in the case of new registration. The registration exercise will conclude on May 29, 2022.
Over $750 million has been set aside in Budget 2022 for the preparations to be undertaken by GECOM for the hosting of LGE this year. This money is part of an overall $4.1 billion allocation to GECOM in Budget 2022 and was examined and approved by the National Assembly during its consideration of the 2022 Budget Estimates.
