Heads of the Joint Services lead LGE polling

Chief- of- Staff of the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) Brigadier Mark Phillips, Top Cop Seelall Persaud, Director of Prisons Carl Graham and Commander of ‘A’ Division Clifton Hicken were among the senior officers within the Joint Services, who cast their ballots before 08:00hrs today in the historic Local Government Elections.

As is customary, polls opened at 06:00hrs across the country to accommodate the members of the Joint Services, excluding the Guyana Fire Service ranks, who would be voting on March 18, 2016 with the rest of the voting population.

Charge D’ Affaires of the United States Embassy, Bryan Hunt was on hand to witness the process at the Brickdam Police Station this morning, his first stop in a series of visits.

Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission Dr. Steve Surujbally was also out and about this morning checking on the process and ensuring that his staff was doing what is required of them at several polling stations in central Georgetown.

Speaking with the media after casting his ballot at Base Camp Ayanganna, GDF Chief -of -Staff and Chairman of the Joint Services Commission, Mark Phillips said he was confident that the process would be incident free.

Asked about preparations for the March 18 LGE polls, Phillips assured that all systems are in place and that ranks would have been trained extensively on how to operate on voting day. He reminded that the police would be at the forefront and the army as a support mechanism.

Following the closing of polls at 18:00hrs,the ballots would be returned to the Guyana Elections Commission. They would then be transferred to the respective voting areas to be mixed with the rest of the ballots that would be cast on March 18, before the tabulation is done.