GECOM denies disenfranchising members of Disciplined Services

Last Updated on Wednesday, 7 June 2023, 5:17 by Denis Chabrol

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on Tuesday denied preventing police, soldiers and prison guards from voting ahead of the rest of the population in Local Government Elections.

“Against this backdrop, for anyone to accuse GECOM of willfully disenfranchising members of the Disciplined Forces is malicious and intended to discredit a transparent and efficient process that was evidently successful,” GECOM said.

That election management authority outlined all of the steps that had been taken to ensure that registered voters could have casted their ballots on June 4, 2023 based on the areas they are registered. According to GECOM, those who did not get to vote then could still vote with the rest of the population on June 12.

In response to claims by GECOM Elections Commissioner, Vincent Alexander that about 10 percent of members of the Disciplined Services were disenfranchised, the authority said it worked closely with representatives of those services to acquire the names of their members, extract them, conduct civic and voter education at the various locations, deployed information clerks and displayed the lists of voters at the various locations across Guyana.

GECOM reminded all stakeholders, especially voters that its procedures are guided by the legal provisions and reassures them that they can expect an election that is free, fair, transparent, and credible.

The LGE is being held to elect councillors for the 70 neighbourhood councils and 10 towns.