– reveals reasons for increase For months, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has come under fire for what persons hadDr. Steve Surujbally, GECOM Chairmandeemed a “padded” voters’ list. For the most part,DJ LeMahieu Rockies Jersey, Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally had remained silent on the issue, only once slamming the allegations made against GECOM’s integrity.However,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, Surujbally apparently has had enough since he recently issued a statement on the increase in the numbers on the voters’ list.In his statement, Surujbally lashed out at naysayers and opined that those making allegations “should and do know better”.He also hit out at implications that the list had been purposefully “padded” by a person or persons within GECOM.“Inherent in the word ‘padded’ is the overt, clear and indubitable message that some person or persons at the Guyana Elections Commission has/have brazenly…set out to undermine and tarnish the voters’ list and to make it questionable in its validity,” Surujbally wrote.Surujbally maintained that the act of purposefully padding the list was not only “quite impossible” with the number of checks put in place but its penalty would deter anyone from committing such an offence.“I would like to remind that there are great punishments,Jerseys NFL Wholesale China Online, including jail that is associated with electoral fraud. Would a political party sympathizer love his or her party so much as to ‘take jail’ for his/her leader?” the GECOM head questioned.In 2011, the official list of electors (OLE) for the General Elections had 475,496 electors. This number increased greatly for the revised list of electors (RLE) for the upcoming General Elections; the number of electors rose to 570,786. The increase had garnered immediate alarm with political figures questioning the drastic rise.However, Surujbally in his statement listed a number of reasons for the possible increase, including outreaches and more frequent registration exercises, registrants coming of age and civic and voter education.According to Surujbally,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, since house-to-house registration exercises were conducted in 2008,Josh Hart College Jersey, GECOM steadily improved outreach efforts and increased the frequency of its registration exercises. From the period 2011 to 2015, a total of seven exercises were undertaken, Surujbally said.Meanwhile, he said,cheap nfl jerseys online, 37,355 registered persons who would not have been 18 years at the time of the 2011 OLE had come of age.Furthermore, Surujbally opined that deceased electors played a huge factor in the OLE’s figure. “Let’s face it: many persons would have died during the 2011-2015 period without their deaths ever being reported,” he said. He added that out of 408 objections during the claims and objections period that followed the 7th cycle of continuous registration, only 42 were upheld.He continued, “The underreporting of deaths and emigration is a key challenge that requires a comprehensive approach and inclusion of all stakeholders. GECOM alone cannot address this problem.”Surujbally emphasised that voters’ lists are a “recurring bone of contention” not only in Guyana but all over the world. He said too that the most important consideration is ensuring that electors are unable to vote multiple times.