83% voter turnout on Disciplined Services voting day – GECOM

There was an 83% voter turnout on Disciplined Services voting day – where members of the country’s security forces are given an opportunity to cast their ballots ahead of the General and Regional Elections – so that they are available for posting at the various polling stations and other strategic locations as required by law without disenfranchising them.

This was disclosed by Chief Elections Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Vishnu Persaud during a press conference today.

A total of 10,481 ranks of the Disciplined Services – the Guyana Police Force (GPF), Guyana Defence Force (GDF), and Guyana Prison Services (GPS) – were registered to vote on August 22.

GECOM had indicated that some 6909 ranks from the GPF are listed to vote, 3106 ranks from the GDF and 466 ranks from the GPS.

On D-Day, 5729 police officers voted, 2575 soldiers voted, and 397 prison officers voted.

Deputy CEO Aneal Giddings said this is the largest voter turnout since the 2018 Local Government Elections, the 2020 General and Regional Elections and the 2023 Local Government Elections.

Meanwhile, Disciplined Services voting day progressed smoothly and the ballots were safely and securely delivered to GECOM’s Headquarters in Georgetown following the close of polls across the country.

There, the ballots were to be sorted to be dispatched for intermixing at pre-determined polling stations.

But the CEO revealed that there was an issue detected during this process whereby there were two extra ballots for District Four and one ballot short for District 5 and one ballot short for District 10.

An investigation was launched and the potential cause of the problem was identified. As such, a memo was prepared to be submitted to the seven-member commission. The CEO said the memo includes recommendations and methodology that can be used to address the problem.