THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has expressed dissatisfaction with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) voter education programme, particularly in light of the large number of new young voters, who perhaps will be exercising their franchise for the first time. And it would appear that two other major parties, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU and the Alliance For Change (AFC), also share the same view. Therefore, GECOM should move quickly to address the concerns that have been raised by the parties in order to ensure that on elections day there is no confusion as regards the electoral procedures, because this could lead to ugly situations which would adversely affect the credibility of the elections.
PPP executive member and campaign manager, Robert Persaud, said: “We believe the onus is on GECOM to do much more in this regard, in terms of voters’ education. We know we have a very young voter role this time. Persons below 40 accounting for close to 56 percent of the total electorate while persons who are below 25 will represent 21-22 percent.”
APNU’s Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine is reported to have said his coalition has not yet discussed the matter, but he has observed that GECOM’s voter education “doesn’t seem to me like an active enough programme.”
A lot more has to be done by showing people how to vote, instructing people what to do when they get into the polling station and they need to do so in an aggressive way,” Roopnaraine told Demwaves.

The AFC has warned that if GECOM does not put in place a proper voter education programme, there could be chaos on polling day. One major area of concern, the party says, is the inability of an uneducated public to locate their names on voters’ lists where there are several geo-alpha splits.
“You can get a large amount of spoilt votes because persons are not familiar with the process of voting and registrants may not know where to vote. Without voter education they will have mass confusion on polling day itself,” the AFC’s David Patterson reportedly told demwaves.com.
All of the observations made by the parties bear some degree of merit and therefore GECOM should address these concerns and perhaps should engage them on suggestions as to how to step up voter education and to identify the problematic areas as well.
At every election, inevitably there will be new voters; as such, voter education must be a priority of GECOM because ultimately it would help the electoral process to be a smooth one and ensure no one is disenfranchised as a result of a lack of knowledge of the voting procedures.
However, the responsibility of voter education should not be left to GECOM alone, political parties should also implement their own voter education programmes. This will go a long way in supplementing the work of GECOM.
In this regard, it is noteworthy that the PPP has embarked on such a programme and is an indication of the party’s commitment to the electoral process and its supporters as well as its maturity as a political movement.
Persaud announced that in its continuing bid to ensure that young voters are properly prepared to exercise their democratic right on election day, the PPP/C has prepared “dummy ballots” for the purpose of education.
“These replicate what the ballot will look like; it’s not the ballot, but it is aimed at supporting national efforts to have young people involved and engaged in the process of elections. So we have made it quite clear in the ‘dummy ballot’, to show people how to conduct themselves, to show that it is a very simple, basic exercise, but it is also one which we should not ignore,” Persaud stressed.
It will be hoped that the other contesting political parties will emulate the efforts of the PPP as this would contribute significantly to an efficient electoral process.