Op-Ed: The current voters list should be scrapped
April 25, 2019 – by James McAllister
It is a fact! The voters’ list in Guyana is bloated by at least 30%. The names of over 180,000 dead, missing or non-existent people are included on the voters’ roll.
Of this number, a minimum of 40,000 are the names of dead people. National Census figures, the House-to-House registration of 2008, and Guyana’s vital statistics published by the Bureau of Statistics are important tools for the attempt to unravel the mystery surrounding this voters’ list.
In 2008, GECOM’s House-to-House registration exercise documented a total of 430,000 persons. The 2012 Census recorded a population of 746,955 of which 61% or 455,640 were 18 years or older. Census figures from 1980, 1991, 2002 and 2012 were used as the data for a regression analysis to forecast the 2019 population as approximately 744,000. Assuming 39% of the estimated 2019 population is below 18, then approximately 453,840 are 18 years and over, and eligible to vote. Continue reading
President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo hold meetings, accompanied by their delegations.
Guyana Politics: Bharrat Jagdeo’s decisions have hurt the PPP – By James McAllister
The arrogance and hubris of Bharrat Jagdeo are not working for the PPP
After the No-Confidence Motion (NCM), Jagdeo had hoped pressure from his cohorts in the Private Sector Commission (PSC), and at the Stabroek News would have forced the government to resign. If this had happened, Jagdeo would have nullified a significant amount of the incumbency advantage the government enjoys. In addition, he would have forced election within a period when the government was still absorbing the powerful message its supporters sent during the Local Government Elections (LGE). There would have been no time for adjustment or correction.
However, once there was the combination of the government’s move to the court, and the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) decision to inform the President that elections were not possible before house-to-house registration, he should have adjusted his strategy. Once the issue moved to the courts, impartial observers accepted that the Government was entitled to due process. After all, this was not a case where the PPP won an election and the government was refusing to demit office. This was the case where the dubious vote of a government MP was procured under questionable circumstances. Continue reading →
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