Over 90,000 corrections” made to Revised List of Electors

Over 90,000 corrections have been made to the Revised List of Electors (RLE), GECOM Commissioners, Bibi Shadick and Vincent Alexander told reporters yesterday.
According to Alexander, the changes were made based on information gathered in the recent House to House registration exercise. He noted that the names of over 370,000 persons were garnered in that exercise, and of those persons, over 90,000 would have changed their addresses from when they were previously registered.
Shadick, the PPP Opposition representative on the other hand said that members of her team had requested that GECOM provide the information on the corrections made to the RLE, since it will eventually be used to craft the Official List of Electors (OLE) to take the nation to the election.
Shadick nonetheless stated that GECOM has not been forthcoming with the information and time is running out. She said that the Opposition wants to ensure that the changes are legitimate and that persons are aware of the changes before it is printed in the OLE.
“The claims and objections period deadline for the RLE is January 25 and we are still to see the some 90,000 changes made.” Shadick stated.
GECOM has been pushing towards getting the revised list circulated and vetted in 21 days. The 21 days of claims and objections commenced on January 5, 2020.
GECOM has since been updating the recently published RLE to reflect changes in addresses and other information of some persons.
However PPP/C, which Shadick represents, had dubbed the act “illegal”, saying that officials of the Commission have no right to tinker with the information without a claim or objection from a potential voter.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward had however explained that from the recent truncated House-to-House registration exercise, there were a number of registrants who had made changes to their addresses and names. GECOM has since discovered that a number of those changes were not updated in the system and Ward said that “it is important for us to have those changes made.”
The PRO said that with the publication of the RLE, it was recognised that a number of eligible electors whose addresses and other information were updated during the exercise were not reflected on the RLE.
“In this regard, an administrative process is being conducted to ensure that electors are placed within their correct divisions for voting. Failure to conduct this necessary exercise may very well result in electors being displaced and unable to vote at a polling station in their area,” the statement said.
Ward noted that under the law, the Chief Elections Officer is allowed to make changes to information. “The law provides that we use the most recent registration record,” she said, adding that this record would be the list generated from the house to house registration exercise.