ALL roads today lead to the 2,075 polling stations across the country, as Guyanese come out to cast their votes for the political party of their choice; and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chief Elections Officer, Gocool Boodooo, has given every assurance that all arrangements are in place for today’s polls.
GECOM has established a media centre at the Savannah Suite, Pegasus Hotel, to assist the flow of information.
Voters without their new identification cards can still cast their votes once their name is on the list; and the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has said that they will have teams, working in accordance with GECOM guidelines, outside of the polling stations to assist Guyanese to ensure that everyone is able to exercise his right to vote.
A total of 475,752 persons are named on the Official List of Electors (OLE) and are expected to vote today; and 7,000 members from the disciplined forces, which include the Guyana Defence Force,  Police Force and the Guyana Prison Service and the Fire Service, cast their votes last Monday.
GECOM Chairman Dr. Steve Surujbally, contends that the commission has, since Friday, been ready for today’s polls.

At GECOM’s final press briefing on Friday, at Tower Hotel, Surujbally said elections in 2006 set a high bar for Guyana and this year’s polls are expected to surpass those conditions.
He explained that spot analyses of the successes have been noted, as has the difficulties, which were not many.
“The elections in 2006 represented a bar we placed high, a bar we are trying to supersede,” Surujbally said.
The GECOM Chairman noted that always the hosting of successful elections has been premised on a solid list of electors, and the commission has done exceedingly well in ensuring that an “almost perfect” list was produced.
“You will never have a perfect list,” he said.
Surujbally added that the commission began preparing for the 2011 polls right after the end of the 2006 process.
He pointed out that the commission did a house-to-house registration process and was ready for Local Government elections that were supposed to be on 19th April, but which were unfortunately not held; GECOM continued registration and then headed into the claims and objections period, which was subsequently extended and managed to pull in an additional 7,000 voters on the OLE.
“We know what we are doing,” the Chairman posited.
He lauded the support of the Private Sector Commission, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Inter-Religious Organisation as some of the key stakeholders who have lent support to the commission.
Surujbally added that the signing onto a Media Code of Conduct and a Political Party Code of Conduct were also landmark successes in the leadup to hosting free and fair elections.
“We are ready. GECOM is ready to carry out that mandate given to us by the state,” Dr Surujbally insisted.

BALLOT BOXES
The ballots boxes containing the disciplined services’ votes have been packaged and were up to Friday ready to be dispatched to the returning officers in the various geographical districts to be “intermixed and counted” with other ballots after elections.
The ballot boxes for today’s polls were up to Friday stocked for mobilisation to polling stations across the country.
The GECOM Chairman stressed that the commission was pleased with the level of security guarding ballot boxes and their transport.
“I can say a great affirmative yes,” he said, when asked if the arrangements were satisfactory.
Dr. Surujbally was also asked about the unstamped ballots by a member of an observer mission, which he dismissed as a non-issue. These will be stamped in the presence of party polling agents after  being intermixed after polling ends today.
He explained that was an option requested by the Heads of the Disciplined Services in a meeting with GECOM.
“Until recently, the ballots of the disciplined forces were revealed a week before national elections; so everybody knew if 95% of them voted for a certain political party, then you can say ‘ah ha!’ the military, the police vote for a certain party on block. The police and the military quite rightly, I think, were angered at that, so we will take the envelopes with their votes down to the polling area where they were registered and on polling day they would be mixed up with the total votes,” Surujbally said.

OBSERVERS
There are several foreign and local observers here to oversee the elections process. They are the  Organisation of American States (OAS) group, the Commonwealth Observer group, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) group, and a team from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Local observers include the Electoral Assistance Bureau and The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), among others.
These organizations have agreed to abide by principles enshrined in their terms of reference as they function in an independent, impartial and objective way.
Essentially, the groups’ mandate is to observe and consider all aspects of the electoral process, with a view to assessing compliance with the standards for democratic elections, to which Guyana is committed.
The groups have taken a consensus position in that they are pleased with GECOM’s level of preparedness and will be better placed to make comments after the polls have been conducted today.
The major political parties, whose concerns have been raised with GECOM, concur that the conditions are satisfactory for the hosting of the 2011 polls.
The PSC Chairman, Ramesh Dookhoo, said, “Traditionally, the Private Sector Commission has observed the elections and what we have done this year is to institutionalise that function as an observer…we have given to the EAB 44 supervisors, people who are equipped with their own means of transportation to assist the process…we are happy with GECOM’s work and we are happy with the security arrangements.”
He noted that the large amount of observers will put the process under greater scrutiny and called for political parties to lead by example with responsible behaviour to ensure peaceful polls.
Democracy and good governance are the key principles on which nations are built and an elections process, which is crucially important for the Guyanese people to choose a government, must be transparent, fair and free of violence.