A total of 10,481 disciplined services personnel, comprising members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Guyana Defence Force (GDF), and Guyana Prison Services (GPS), have been listed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to vote on D-Day, scheduled for next Friday, 22 August.
The breakdown of the ranks is 6909 ranks from the GPF, 3106 ranks from the GDF and 466 ranks from the GPS.
Though the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) is often included as a member of the joint services, those members will be voting on E-Day and are not catered for on D-Day.
The ranks will be voting at 87 balloting stations across the country and will be voting using ballot papers in accordance with the district that the ranks are from.
Each balloting station will be provided with a list of the ranks who are qualified to vote at each respective balloting station. When the ranks vote, their names will be crossed off the disciplined services list provided at the ballot station.
Ranks who have not voted on D-Day will not have their names crossed off of the disciplined services list and will have the opportunity to still be able to vote in their respective district as per normal on Elections Day, September 1.
Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DCEO), Anneal Giddings, during a presentation at a GECOM Elections Media Training on Saturday, where media personnel are being trained on the elections operations, noted that GECOM has already extracted the over 10,000 ballot papers that will be distributed for use on D-Day for disciplined services, with the operations expected to conclude by Monday, allowing for the boxes to go out to the various balloting stations.
Giddings explained that notwithstanding there being 87 balloting stations, there will only be 63 ballot boxes, with some polling stations sharing ballot boxes due to the remote nature of the location, noting that balloting stations sharing mobile ballot boxes are being accessed by helicopter.
In these cases the ballot box will spend short periods at each assigned ballot station before being flown to the next ballot station.
The balloting stations were gazetted on August 9, with 6 stations in Region One, 4 stations in Region Two, 4 stations in Region Three, 30 in Region Four, 2 in Region Five, 6 in Region Six, 6 in Region Seven, 2 in Region Eight, 2 in Region Nine, and 5 in Region 10.
“D-Day”
In Guyana, the disciplined services would customarily cast their ballots early on “D-Day” in order to ensure they can perform their duties on Election Day without interruption since they are deployed across the country on Election Day.
On Election Day, many officers may be stationed far from their home constituencies, which would make it difficult or impossible for them to vote where they’re registered. Additionally, letting them vote early reduces logistical stress and ensures their votes are safely cast and stored before they’re deployed.
However, the ballots of the disciplined services are not counted separately. The disciplined services ballots are kept under seal and guarded until Election Day.
Once the ranks have voted at the various balloting stations, their ballots are then sent to regular polling stations on Election Day and are intermixed with regular ballot papers before they are counted. The intermixing is done to protect the voter privacy of the ranks, as well as uphold fairness and secrecy.
