Georgetown: Provisions would be made for military personnel who were unable to cast their ballots with the rest of the population on November 12, GECOM Chairman, retired Justice James Patterson said as the slow process came to an end Friday evening.
The Guyana Elections Commission reported that the disciplined services vote for local government elections was “slow”, with members trickling in at various times to cast their ballots.
GECOM Chairman said based on observations, a small number of Disciplined Services Members completed the voting process this morning.
He said that was understandable since many of them were still involved in their regular daily duties and therefore could not have been expected to make themselves available at polling stations while there are pending duties.
“The process is slow, but it is encouraging. Remember its the Disciplined Services and they have essential duties to do all day”, he said.
The Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield said the Commission has received some complaints from some ranks of the Disciplined Services, that they could not find their names on the list.
He said it was the Disciplined Services that were responsible for the provision of names to be sorted for the vote. Mr. Lowenfield explained that the Commission will allow those members who did not get to vote today, to do so on elections day, November 12.
“I’ll be doing a coordinating meeting with the police and the army to state clearly that these ranks, not of their own volition, they were off the list and make alternative arrangements for them to go at their place of residence to vote in their villages or in the municipality of Georgetown or wherever to exercise their franchise on November 12″.
He said there will be need for some coordination between GECOM and the Disciplined Services to make provisions for those ranks.
The Commission had asked the Disciplined Services to put a hold on transfers in the lead up to voting day, but admit that the Commission would have had no control over any such move.
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