GECOM seeks electricity guarantees from GPL at tabulation centres

…as voters are assured their intent, not just an ‘X’, will count

Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Vishnu Persaud has revealed that he has written to Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) for guarantees of no power outages at tabulation centres across the country.

He made this revelation during a recent stakeholder engagement with representatives of the various observer missions that will be monitoring the country’s elections.
Nevertheless, the CEO noted that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has systems in place in the event of power outages.
“There is no requirement for the use of any electronic gadget to process Statements of Poll at the level of the polling station, so our lamps will be sufficient to take care of that should there be a blackout… At the higher level, I have been in contact with the head of Guyana Power and Light; in fact, I have written him, providing him with the location of all of the places where we will be doing tabulation and requesting that, as far as is practicable, we should not lose power… That apart, we are putting in place to have not one but two standby generators at every tabulation location,” the CEO explained.
Deputy Chief Elections Officer Anneal Giddings has emphasised that once a voter’s intention is clear, then the ballot will be considered valid.
He made the assertion during a recent stakeholder engagement with representatives of the various observer missions that will be monitoring the country’s elections.
To cast their vote, electors are required to mark an “X” in the box next to the political party they wish to elect.
According to GECOM’s voter education material, a ballot is considered spoilt if it was accidentally torn by an election official; incorrectly marked or torn by an elector; ink gets on the ballot while staining a finger; or the elector displays the marked ballot, indicating whom he/she has voted for. Spoilt ballots are not placed in the ballot box.
On the other hand, a ballot is considered rejected if the ballot paper has no official mark (six-digit number); has not been marked for any party; if it cannot be established for whom the elector has voted; has been marked for more than one party; or is marked in such a way that the elector can be identified.
The DCEO explained that presiding officers are trained to determine what can be considered a valid ballot. He admitted that some voters are unable to follow instructions and would often put indicators on the ballot other than the required “X”.
“We’ve seen more than ‘X’s before – stars, ticks, circles, all kinds of things – our presiding officers are trained to make a determination if the intention of the voter is clear, then that vote shall be awarded to whatever party is clear to them … They [electors] are guided and instructed to vote using an ‘X’ within the boundaries of the box; many persons don’t follow guidance pretty well,” Giddings noted.
Chief Elections Officer Vishnu Persaud added that GECOM will provide polling day staff as well as party agents with examples of valid and invalid ballots “so that they are guided if and when they run into such a situation”.