GECOM gears up for Disciplined Services voting on Feb. 21; to extract over 10,000 ballots

Ballots and Statements of Poll for the upcoming general and regional elections were transported to the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) High Street, Kingston, Georgetown Office Friday where they are being offloaded.

Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield revealed that the Commission will now extract 10,226 ballots for members of the Disciplined Services to vote on February 21 while 83 ballots will be extracted for the non-resident voters, including Ambassadors who are serving overseas.

“We’re happy that the ballots –both ordinary and tendered –and the Statements of Poll are all here. Today’s exercise entails the extraction of those ballots intended for voting by the Disciplined Services and for our non-resident electors –those are Ambassadors and so on outside.

“We will extract today, post it up to them and ask that it returns by a particular date,” the Chief Elections Officer explained.

The ballots will be extracted from each region in which those voters are registered.

The process is being conducted in the presence of political party agents, former Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and former Chief Election Commissioner of India Dr Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi among others. 

Below is a table showing a breakdown of extractions to be done for Disciplined Services and non-resident voting:

GECOM has appointed Ballot Officers for the Disciplined Services voting and the general and regional elections.

Ballot Officer for the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) is Roxanne Ramdyhan-Lewi while Ballot Officer for the Guyana Police Force (GPF) is Nardeo Persaud while Onicia Bynoe was sworn in as Ballot Officer for the Guyana Prison Service.

Eleven parties have been approved to contest the March 2, 2020 elections.