Ballot papers to be used at the upcoming General and Regional Elections are slated to arrive in the country on Thursday as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) reports that preparations, in general, are “well-advanced”.

GECOM Commissioners, Charles Corbin and Sase Gunraj, who have been based in Canada to oversee the printing of the ballot papers, are expected to return on the same date.
Sensitive and non-sensitive materials are dispatched to the various districts prior to Election Day and sensitive materials including ballot boxes are checked, labelled and properly secured in respective containers. Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield told the media on Tuesday the Commission has engaged the police about their presence at various ballot stations.

Meanwhile, members of the Disciplined Forces are to cast their vote on February 21, 2020. The military are currently being trained in the electoral process and Commonwealth Senior Technical Adviser, Dr. Afari Gyan and Former Chief Elections Commissioner of India, Dr. Syed Zaidi are overseeing the process.

Lowenfield also updated that there will be 2,352 polling stations inclusive of 131 private residences, of which 91 of the private residences are in Region Four, particularly on the East Coast corridor. Lowenfield commented: “As far as our arrangements go we are at a safe place.”

The Commission is also willing to make provisions for the visually impaired to utilise tactile templates but it is still working out a register of where these specific voters are located. Speaking on GECOM’s preparedness, Commissioner Vincent Alexander said: “For all intents and purposes, we’re on top of it…the persons whose names were moved around on the Registrar of Registrants and the voter’s list are being sent letters so that they know, and essentially those are persons who did transfers through the house-to-house registration. So, the house-to-house has served a very critical purpose in ensuring that people who moved will now be able to vote in the place where they moved.” GECOM recently published the Official List of Electors (OLE) which is made up of 661,028 persons eligible voting in the March 2, General and Regional Elections.