PEOPLE’S Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Executive Member and spokesman, Robert Persaud, said yesterday – at a mid-afternoon news briefing – that though the party was thus far satisfied with how polling was progressing, it still had agents out there monitoring the various electoral processes so as to ensure 100 per cent efficiency and compliance.
He also confirmed that whatever concerns the party had, among them the availability of identification folios, which were not made available to all the party agents, had already been addressed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
GECOM Chairman, Dr. Steve Surujbally, however, didn’t see this particular concern as major, and by way of explanation said that the necessary requisites for polling had already been   packed in boxes and the contents signed off after securing the agreement of the party’s representatives.
Another concern the party had was the fact that some GECOM staffers were wearing party paraphernalia.
“We have written to GECOM and to the international observers,” Persaud said, adding that it would please him immensely if some sort of action was taken on the matter.
He said that while there were other isolated incidents that were cause for concern, he had every confidence  in his agents’ ability in ensuring that the process is free and fair and without incident.
Asked whether the party had any mechanism in place to monitor the outcome of the polls, Persaud replied in the affirmative, saying: “We have set up a mechanism whereby, internally, the results will be funnelled to us for our own purposes.”
That mechanism involves PPP/C agents having access to  copies of the tally sheets while the actual counting is being done, so as to be able to predict the outcome of the elections.
He was however at pains to explain that the public was not privy to this information, nor was the information  for dissemination, since that privilege belongs to GECOM, which is the official authority for announcing the results of the elections. (Vanessa Narine)