Several Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) supporters who had indicated their willingness to work as polling agents for the party on Local Government Elections (LGE), have since reported alleged threats by a senior regional official.
The Party supporters who work with the Regional health department are claiming that during meetings with an official from the Department they were told that if they were to work for the PPP on Elections day, they will be fired.
From information received it appeared as though several small meetings were held where the alleged threats were made.
Party Regional Supervisor Zamal Hussain told this publication that he initially received telephone calls from his secretary that several persons had called and asked to be replaced as polling agents.
Hussain said after more persons who had initially given their names and had received some training from the Party indicated that they were not going to be working for the party, he sought to find out why and was told of the threats.
According to Hussain, the PPP will not be deterred by the alleged threats.
LGE will be held on November 12, with members of the Disciplined Services voting on Friday, November 2.
While there was low voter turnout for the Disciplined Services, there were also reports by a large number of ranks that they turned up to vote but their names were not on the list.
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Public Relations Officer Yolanda Warde in addressing concerns about certain ranks being unable to vote said that GECOM received only two reports of ranks turning up to vote only to find their names are not on the list.
She noted that the issue will be looked into, and if need be, such ranks will be accommodated on November 12.
However, Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday took GECOM to task for the missing names.
He added that he also had received information that there have been over 100 reports of this occurring, in sharp contrast to the two reports cited by Warde.
“I am very unhappy with a situation that was brought to our attention today (Friday),” Jagdeo stated. “We have received over a hundred reports where soldiers and Police turned up to vote and were told that they will be unable to do so since their names were not on the list to vote today, although they had done so in 2015 and 2016 on D- day.”
“So far we have sought answers from GECOM. The explanations are not satisfactory. We will follow this matter intensely over the next few days, to ensure that no member of the disciplined services is disenfranchised,” he added.
