…List of Electors posted on GECOM website
BALLOTING (voting) by members of the Disciplined Services, including the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force, and the Guyana Prison Service, will take place next Monday, November 21, 2011 which is a week before the November 28 polls. 
The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), in a statement yesterday, said the list of locations of the 70 places which will be established throughout Guyana for the members of the Disciplined Forces to cast their ballots are accessible on the GECOM Website: www.gecom.org.gy

The hours of voting by members of the Disciplined Services are 07:00 hrs to 19:00 hrs (7:00 am to 7:00 pm).

GECOM also assured that the “Secrecy of the Votes of Members of the Discipline Services who vote on Monday, November 21, 2011 is guaranteed”.

It said the votes that will be cast by members of the Disciplined Services will be sent directly to the Chief Elections Officer in individual envelopes sealed by the members themselves immediately after voting.

The Chief Election Officer, or his duly appointed representative, will sort the envelopes with the ballots and place each envelope in the appropriate packet to be sent through the respective Returning Officers for the votes to be cast, at the relevant Polling Stations in the District where they live, before the close of poll on Election Day.

“Before the close of the poll on Election Day, in the presence of the Polling Agents present, the Presiding Officer will verify the number of envelopes, and inform the Polling Agents of his/her proposed action to intermix the Disciplined Services ballots with the ordinary ballots cast at the Polling Station,” GECOM stated.

The Presiding Officer will then open each envelope with the marked ballots without exposing the secrecy of the ballots, stamp them with the official six digit number for that Polling Station at the top section for General Election and at the bottom section for Regional Election, and insert the folded ballot paper into the Ballot Box in the full view of all present.

Ranks who voted will then be deemed to have cast their votes in the District in which the relevant Polling Stations are situated, GECOM explained.

Meanwhile, GECOM said it has taken note of misleading information published in sections of the media, including this newspaper, that persons will not be allowed to vote if they are not in possession of their ID cards. 
The Commission made it clear that the National Identification Card (or valid Passports) will be used to verify the identity of electors who are listed in the 2011 Official List of Electors (OLE).
However, GECOM said if an elector is not in possession of his/her ID card, the Oath of Identity will be administered in accordance with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, Chapter 1:03. In this regard, the folio with electors’ photographs alongside their names and Identification numbers, which will be in the possession of the Presiding Officer and the Party Agents at the respective Polling Stations, will be used to verify the identity of the voter.
The Commission also stated that ID cards (“red” and “green”) which were issued prior to October, 2009, will not be accepted as a means of identification for voting at the upcoming Elections.
“Persons who are not listed in the 2011 OLE will not be allowed to vote at the elections,” GECOM stated.
It also reiterated that national ID cards issued before October 2009 have been “decommissioned”.

GECOM is also urging all registrants who have not, as yet, uplifted their ID cards to go to the Registration Offices associated with their respective areas of residence to collect their new ID cards without delay. 
The current ID card distribution exercise will end two days before Election Day – on Friday, November 25, 2011.