LGE 2018
…GECOM to meet with Disciplined Services heads
Following the discovery of names of ranks of the Disciplining Services missing from the voters’ list on Friday when ranks voted for the Local Government Elections, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Warde has noted that the elections entity cannot be blamed for the missing names.
She also revealed that heads of the Disciplined Services will be engaged in the near future as the elections body works on the theory that it may have been their fault.
This was revealed by the PRO during an exclusive interview on Saturday on the sidelines of a media engagement at the National Racquet Center, Woolford Avenue, Georgetown.
“The list of persons from the Disciplined Services that was provided to us actually came from the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force (and) the (Guyana) Prison Service so those persons we’ve worked with that list that they would have provided to us so if there were omissions on that part where the respective agency did not provide an officers name to us. That is not an omission on GECOM’s part,” she said.
It was however noted that while an investigation into the matter is still ongoing, various reasons for the omission may still exist on the table.
According to Warde, “we have to be mindful that not all the areas are Local Authority Areas, so you might be an officer in the Guyana Defence Force or the Police Force of the Prison (Service) but you do not reside in a Local Authority Area (LAA) then it’s not expected that your name will be on the OLV (Official List Voters) for Local Government Elections because you don’t reside in a LAA”.
Moreover, Warde pointed out that if an officer lives in an Indigenous community he would not be able to vote as it is not a LAA.
Disenfranchised
On Saturday, Guyana Times reported that hundreds of members from the Disciplined Services felt disenfranchised as they were unable to vote on the date set aside for them to cast their ballots.
Warde, while addressing those concerns, claimed that GECOM received only two reports of ranks turning up to vote only to find their names are not on the list. She noted that the issue will be looked into, and if need be, such ranks will be accommodated on November 12.
However, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday took GECOM to task for the missing names. He said he also had received information that there have been over 100 reports of this occurring, in sharp contrast to the two reports cited by Warde.
“I am very unhappy with a situation that was brought to our attention today (Friday),” Jagdeo stated. “We have received over a hundred reports where soldiers and Police turned up to vote and were told that they will be unable to do so since their names were not on the list to vote today, although they had done so in 2015 and 2016 on D-day.”
“So far we have sought answers from GECOM. The explanations are not satisfactory. We will follow this matter intensely over the next few days, to ensure that no member of the Disciplined Services is disenfranchised,” he added.
Local Government Elections is slated for November 12.
