THE Private Sector Commission (PSC), last Thursday, approved the Automatic Ballot Scan and Tabulation Voting System for use in both local government and national elections in Guyana.
The approval followed a meeting in which the PSC members were briefed on its benefits, said a press release issued after they met, on January 30, with the Canadian High Commissioner, Dr. Nicole Giles and Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally.

The statement said it was noted that the use of such a system could enhance the accuracy of vote counts and speed up the delivery of election results.
The PSC was heartened by the information presented and looks forward to the results of a preliminary assessment of the system by GECOM, should the proposed project find acceptance from key stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the Canadian High Commissioner also pointed out that approximately 60 paper-based, automatic ballot scan and tabulation machines would be donated to Guyana by the DELIAN Project, an independent non-profit organisation registered in Canada and the United States.

The document added that each machine handles in excess of 1,000 votes per day. These systems, while, speeding up the tabulation process, also provide for paper ballots which could be manually tabulated in the event of the need for a recount.
The release said the PSC is of the view that such systems could be of great value to Guyana, where the current methods associated with the tabulation and the transmission of votes tend to impede the official declaration of results.