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Mandatory fingerprint cross-matching exercise delaying ID cards issuance- GECOM spokesperson




Spokesperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Yolanda Ward said persons who applied for their National Identification (ID) Card during the last continuous registration process have not yet been able to uplift them because of the setbacks the mandatory fingerprint cross-matching exercise has posed.


Ward explained that it is necessary for the commission to go through the stage of mandatory fingerprint cross-matching exercise to ensure transparency in the National Register of Registrants (NRR) list.


GECOM is responsible for ensuring that someone is not registered twice in the NRR list. The electoral body, cross matches the fingerprints of all persons who registered against those already on the NRR list after the closure of the exercise.


After the cross-matching process, only persons who claimed a new application for registration will be issued an ID card and committed to the NRR list.


“We have to ensure that on our database we have one individual there. We cannot afford to have cases of one persons listed twice and so we use that biometric information to ensure that we rule out we rule out any such possibility and to ensure the transparency of our National Register of registrant database,” she told MTV News Update during an interview.


Persons over the past months have been complaining about the inconvenience the delay in the issuance of the ID cards has posed to them but Ward has urged the registrants to be patient as the commission is working assiduously to ensure this important document is issued as soon as possible.


“We are hoping to have those ID card ready in the shortest time possible. We would just like to urge those registrants, I know for some of them who have business to transact it’s an inconvenience but we are really just asking for your patience as we cover our grounds of administrative things,” she noted.


GECOM is the constitutional body responsible for the issuance of National ID cards.


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