Joint Services voting gets off to a smooth start
Members of the Joint Services began casting their votes for the parties of their choice on Friday morning at 82 polling stations across the country.
Chief-of-Staff of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Patrick West told the media at the Camp Ayanganna, Georgetown location where he voted, that 3,000 ranks of the GDF will be voting. Of that amount, over 500 are voting at the Ayanganna location.
“Each soldier is required to vote for the candidate of his/her choice,” he stated.
The Chief-of-Staff said 95% of the soldiers will be voting on Friday while the remainder who are unavailable will be voting with civilians on March 2.
“At the end of the day we are all citizens of Guyana and we will all have those choices now and in the future and I don’t see anything wrong with political leaders sharing from their political platforms their plans,” the Chief of Staff stated.
The soldiers were restricted from asking anyone to vote for any particular party.
The army chief noted that every election is critical and ensuring a smooth process is of utmost importance.
At Eve Leary where members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) cast their votes, Commissioner of Police Leslie James reported a smooth start to the process.
The process is being observed by the various electoral observer missions, political party agents and Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) officials.
On Friday morning, President David Granger also visited the various polling places across Georgetown.
The President, dressed in a green shirt, first visited Camp Ayanganna before moving to the police outposts.
“Polling was opened on time, started on time and there were no hitches…and I am satisfied the process is going smoothly,” the President said.
The Chair of GECOM, Justice (retired) Claudette Singh observed the voting at the Army training base of Camp Seweyo on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
