Local Government Elections (LGE) in Guyana got underway on Monday, November 12, to a slow start at the opening of polls at 06:00h.
Based on preliminary reports reaching INews, confusion has already started to manifest itself in what appears to be the lack of communication between polling agents and also their apparent inability to properly and efficiently identify if persons coming in to the polling stations should vote their.
Several voters in the La Grange/Nismes Local Authority Area turned up at the GECOM polling station at La Grange and were told that their names are not on the list.
Despite the Polling Station being opened, the Returning Officer (RO) was yet to be on site with the laptop to find the names of the voters.
The same situation prevailed in Georgetown at the New Campbellville Secondary school where the polling clerks who were assigned with the responsibility of outlining to the voters where they should proceed to vote were unable to do so effectively, because they were not assigned laptops to expedite the process.
When the agents asked for the RO, they were told that he left.
Meanwhile in La Grange, several of the voters left the polling station and returned with the information provided by Party representatives only to be found on the list.
The RO for La Grange then returned with the laptop only to find several of the voters on the list but the printed out list still has some people missing.
GECOM’s education programme is also coming under flack since they would have merged some constituencies without telling the voters where their polling stations are or that the constituencies would have been merged, further exacerbating the situation.
At the Peter’s Hall Primary, East Bank of Demerara, there were some issues with persons not finding their names on the list. Those issues were sorted shortly after.
Voters are now trickling in to polling stations on the West Bank of Demerara, there are no long lines as was the case with General Elections but the day is now beginning.
The voting process in others parts of Guyana has been so far deemed quiet and slow.
