Voters roll for accuracy check
-President
President Bharrat Jagdeo
Stabroek News
November 28, 2003
President Bharrat Jagdeo says the voters list is to be checked for accuracy in preparation for local government elections even as the two main parties accuse each other of dragging their feet.
Responding to a question on the delays, Jagdeo yesterday told reporters at a press conference that the PNCR was claiming that the list was tampered with, and despite the intervention by a specialist who dismissed the claim, it had surfaced once again.
He said he would have the international community verify the database. He added that it was easy to check the integrity of the list through sampling on a house-to-house check in some areas. Then, once it was verified, continuous registration planned by the Elections Commission would be conducted with controls so no one could tamper with the original database. "That would allow us to hold (the local government elections) and be prepared for the 2006 general elections."
He said he did not want to "accuse anyone of anything, but the recent position of the PNCR to say that the (voter's) list is flawed would result in us not having local government elections before the next national elections." Local government elections were last held in 1994 and were due to be run off since 1998.
At a PNCR press briefing held earlier in the day at Congress Place, Sophia, PNCR Central Executive Member Hamley Case, reading a prepared statement, said "the government has once again found it necessary to propose to the National Assembly the postponement of local government elections."
The statement said that the proposal for postponement came in the wake of the PNCR Leader, Robert Corbin's pronouncement on the constructive engagements of the dismal record of implementation of the decisions taken at the level of the engagement and it took the PPP/C almost 14 months to respond to the PNCR's proposal on these elections at the PNCR's insistence.
The PNCR said that it was at its insistence the Local Government Reform Com-mittee was reconvened, however, the foot-dragging had continued.
Calling on the government to come clean on the question of the electoral system for local elections, the PNCR said that Jagdeo was on "the attack seeking to hoodwink the Guyanese people into believing that the PNCR's call for a new voters' list is the reason for the delay."
The PNCR said that it made no sense to tell the nation that Guyana had the most advanced constitution in Caricom if it remained only on paper.