{"id":11726,"date":"2023-07-04T17:34:07","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T17:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=11726"},"modified":"2023-07-04T17:34:11","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T17:34:11","slug":"gecom-chair-constitutional-reform-needed-for-biometrics-and-voter-list-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/gecom-chair-constitutional-reform-needed-for-biometrics-and-voter-list-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"GECOM Chair: Constitutional Reform Needed for Biometrics and Voter List Removal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh, has highlighted the need for constitutional reform to introduce biometrics and remove individuals from the voters’ list. She emphasized that these changes require amendments to Guyana’s electoral laws and the constitution itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the calls for biometric verification at polling stations by the APNU during their protests, the GECOM Chairwoman clarified that such implementation would require constitutional reforms. She cautioned against misleading interpretations of a “clean” voters’ list and the introduction of biometrics, reiterating that only changes to the electoral laws can enable these adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also made it clear that GECOM does not have the authority to remove a person\u2019s name from the list, whether they are residing in Guyana or abroad, and reminded that once someone is 18 years or older and alive, they are entitled to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo remove a person\u2019s name from the voter\u2019s list on the grounds of residency and the introduction of biometrics will necessitate an amendment to the constitution,\u201d she said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Regarding the requirement of a national identification card for voting, the GECOM Chair highlighted that it would be unconstitutional to deny individuals the right to vote solely based on the absence of such a card. She emphasized that there is already a folio of voter photos at the polling place to ensure identification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Aneal Giddings added that the only legal way names are removed from the voters’ list is through a list of deceased persons from the General Registrar’s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Aneal Giddings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThat list is well received and has been received since my time here and we go through a process of ensuring or verifying their existence on the national register and we flag them as deceased,\u201d he said.  <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh, has highlighted the need for constitutional reform to introduce biometrics and remove individuals from the voters’ list. She…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[366,363,350,367,351],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-development","category-national-transformation","category-news","category-one-guyana","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11730,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11726\/revisions\/11730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}