GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The opposition party, the Alliance For Change (AFC) has called for all Venezuelans who have been granted Guyanese citizenship to be barred from voting in elections.
Khemraj RamjattanAccording to AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan, the party fears that the Venezuelans with Guyanese citizenship, could determine the outcome of elections or secession of Essequibo County.
In recent weeks Venezuela has escalated its threat by planning a referendum on December 3, to effectively annex Essequibo as a State and grant citizenship and identification cards to residents there.
The AFC has also called for a transparent system to be put in place to allow the opposition to verify whether such registrants are eligible to vote here because they were born to Guyanese parents.
Ramjattan has recommended that such persons should be “processed through an authentic system whereby the opposition can have scrutiny of all such Venezuelans.”
He also demanded a review of citizenship granted to all Venezuelans over the past two years “so that the opposition can see the authenticity of such grants.
The AFC said that as a safeguard, it would be pressing for the names of all late registrants under under the amended Births and Deaths Registration Act to be made public so that stakeholders could verify whether those persons are indeed Guyanese and their births were never previously registered.
Once the information is made available, he said the AFC would conduct its own investigation.
The AFC also urged government to stop granting Guyanese citizenship to Venezuelans until the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court, rules on the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award that settled the land boundary between the two neighbouring South American nations.
The AFC’s concerns came on the heels of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo saying that Venezuelans born to Guyanese parents should not be prevented from voting in Guyana’s elections once they are properly registered.
In addition, the AFC leader also accused the People’s Progressive Party Civic-led administration of setting the stage for Venezuelan-Guyanese vote buying. “This government like to talk about other people but they are going to rig the elections long before the elections are held,” said Ramjattan, a former PPP executive member until he was expelled in 2004.
