THE renewed national interest on whether residency should be a requirement in the Official List of Electors (OLE) for the upcoming general election can be resolved by appeal to the Constitution.

Under our current political system of Proportional Representation (PR), Guyanese voters exercise their rights to choose their government, irrespective of their geographic location. This non-residency requirement is necessary for the functioning of the PR system.

A classic case in point is PR in Israel. However, because of widespread fear of overseas voting and lack of transparency in the voting system in Guyana, Section 2 (f) of the Constitution (Amendment) Act No.36 of 1991 amends the Constitution to allow for residency requirements and thus the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) must carry out verification of the voters list in accordance with the law, and to ensure transparency.

The intent of the amendment was to provide a temporary measure of relief for those who were concerned about the accuracy of the voters list.

In subsequent elections, therefore, including 1997 and 2001, electoral reforms should have addressed the issue of residency. Instead, section 3(1) Election Laws Act (ELA) 2000 provides for residency requirement to ensure the functioning of the PR system.

Again, this Amendment was temporary and was subsequently removed in May 2006 by Section 10 of the ELA 2006.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and supersedes all other laws on residency requirements.

The appeal to the Representation of People’s Act of 1964 and subsequent Amendments (2002) is not relevant to the residency requirement. Those who were in political power should be held accountable for this controversial residency requirement. They should either make permanent amendments to the Constitution to reflect societal changes or arrange for a national referendum to amend the Constitution.

Notwithstanding the statutory requirement for residency, GECOM is constitutionally obliged to act with impartiality and fairness in the execution of its duties (162 (91), b), Constitution (Amendment) Act.

Under the joint cooperation and expertise of GECOM and the Election Office of Jamaica (EOJ), the 2001 OLE can be cleansed with the scanning-capture, storing, and cross referencing of inked fingerprints for persons listed on the 2001 official List of Electors.

This means that there is no need for persons to be resident in Guyana in order to be eligible to vote in the upcoming elections.

Moreover, there is no need to delete names of voters from the list, and thus, the exercise of house-to-house–verification is not mandatory.
DR. DEV RAWANA