[www.inewsguyana.com] – Jason Calder, an elections observer from the Carter Centre, says that Guyana’s rejected ballots are at the lowest they have ever been in history.
This is after iNews published an article on Tuesday, June 16 stating that the May 11, 2015 General and Regional Elections has seen over three hundred less rejected ballots when compared to the amount in 2011; however the figure is still at an alarming high.
The 2015 elections results, as gazetted by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) on June 05, 2015 indicated that there was a total of 4,043 rejected ballots in comparison to 4,418 in 2011 – 375 less uncounted votes.
Calder via a Facebook post however stated that “the 4,043 rejected ballots is the lowest number of any election in Guyana in the last 25 years. It is also much lower as a percent of votes cast given the record number of voters who voted in the 2015 election.”
In 2001 there were 7218 rejected ballots, 5899 in 2006, and in 2011 4,184.
He did however admit that voter education levels are enhancing hence the message is getting to those who my need it.
He pointed out too that it is “still useful to look at how this figure breaks down regionally. That would tell you whether there is a regional pattern to the rejected ballots and thus whether some targeted voter education would be useful as a part of overall voter education effort.”
