the production and distribution of the new modern Identification Cards

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The perceived inability of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to host local government elections in 2009 was confirmed with the secretariat announcing their annual vacation extending from current until January 31, 2010.According to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, this will result in the absence of the full complement of management staff at both junior and senior levels.During his weekly press conference on Thursday last, Dr. Luncheon said that the Commission’s decision at such a critical juncture begs the question of the commitment of the entity in ensuring the execution of local government elections.Dr. Luncheon stated that the details of the ‘ill-fated’ procurement of National Identification (ID) card materials makes for ‘vexed reading’ in light of the abandonment of 2009 as the date for the elections.The last Local Government Elections were held on August 8, 1994, under the administration of the People’s Progressive Party-Civic (PPP/C). In that year, the party won 80 percent of the councils.On July 29 last, GECOM came in for a tongue lashing when President Bharrat Jagdeo expressed his annoyance at the agency’s inability to host local government elections this year.During a press conference hosted at Office of the President, the Head of State said that the administration cannot keep ‘pumping taxpayers’ money’ into GECOM, just to have a ‘laid back kind of attitude in reciprocity.’Irritated at the agency, President Jagdeo said that at one time Guyana was spending more money on a per capita basis than any other country in the world to organise elections.According to the President, with all the resources incorporated into GECOM, a second examination should be warranted.Prior to the President’s statement, Chairman of GECOM, Dr. Steve Surujbally, confirmed that there could be no Local Government elections this year.According to Dr. Surujbally, the groundwork that has to be completed before such elections could take place would not be completed by the November 30 deadline that had been set for the holding of local government elections.He said that there must first of all be the completion of the National Register of Registrants (NRR), the production and distribution of the new modern Identification Cards, the delimitations exercise, the claims and objections period as well as an education drive.The NRR is still to be completed and there are in excess of 300 cases of multiple registrations which have been identified as a result of the fingerprint cross-referencing programme and are currently being addressed.There are also another 84 cases still to be unresolved given the poor quality of the fingerprint and this is also to be addressed.In excess of 432,000 registrants have been verified and okayed, according to Dr Surujbally.Dr. Surujbally emphasised that the Claims and Objections exercise will not commence until the ID card distribution and the delimitation exercises are completed and that the exercise should not be more that six weeks.In relation to the new ID cards, Thomas De La Rue, the company responsible for their production, was paid 90 per cent of the total sum due, at a cost of just under US$2 per card placing.The overall cost is about US$870,000.The company was approached ever since last year for the production of the new cards but said that it would not commence any such exercise until at least 90 per cent of the total sum had been paid over and this was done on June 16, according to Dr. Surujbally.He noted that with respect to the delimitation of constituencies, GECOM will not be changing existing boundaries, but will seek to establish constituencies within and in conjunction with the existing legal/administrative framework of the Regional system.