QUITE a buzz surrounds the ongoing University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS) elections, especially since the voting process to elect student body representatives will be conducted and tabulated by a newly-introduced electronic system.

During a recent media conference at the Education Lecture Theatre at the University of Guyana, Greater Georgetown, the University administration along with DELIAN project representatives, from Canada, introduced the use of electronic counting machines in the vote counting process which is set to provide daily polling results under three minutes.
ELECTORAL TECHNOLOGY
The DELIAN project is a Non-Profit Organisation registered in Canada and the United States. The group’s mandate is to provide research on current electoral technology and its use in emerging and growing democracies that are willing to become part of the experiment, according to Project Manager, Allan Bess.
He disclosed that the body has been in existence for some 24 months. He added that the organisation comprises an experienced team of election officers who have overseen elections in various Regions of the world.
One such esteemed member is the Chairman of the DELIAN Advisory Board, Jean-Pierre Kingsley who, according to Bess, was the Electoral Advisor in Canada for some 17 years. The equivalent position here is Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Dr. Steve Surujbally.
Speaking at the event, UG Registrar Vincent Alexander commented: “For the first time in the history of the student elections and I dare say in the history of national elections, we have embraced a Canadian NGO, DELIAN, [which is providing the University with] facilities to have electronic casting, tabulation and transmission.”
Bess stressed that the NGO is “not an observer group” but rather an organisation of seasoned officers who have expressed concern at the time usually taken for the collection of elections results in some Regions of the world.
ELECTORAL EFFICIENCY

Commenting further on the operations, Bess explained that DELIAN functions as a facilitator of cooperation to improve electoral efficiency. “We identify technology providers for specific technology that we think can be employed in a Region, provided that the elections management body wants to use it.”
The group has been known to identify sponsors to fund ventures to acquire machines for electronic tabulation, where according to him, “one machine can handle roughly 1,000 voters per day, in a 10 or 12-hour voting segment.”
The first phase of the University of Guyana elections were slated for yesterday at the Turkeyen Campus, and the second phase of voting is scheduled to be conducted tomorrow at the Tain campus in East Berbice.
While the machines present an opportunity for effective vote count, the UG Registrar has confirmed that one of the four UGSS presidential candidates registered a concern with the sudden introduction of the electronic system at a time when voter education would not have been on the agenda.
Responding to this concern, Alexander gave all assurances that during the course immediately after the press conference the administration will be engaging large classes to ensure that students are fully aware of the new system.
“The methodology is not that difficult for someone, simply and quickly, to assimilate and to understand,” he said. This point was further solidified by Bess who confirmed that a one-day training session will be held to provide UGSS elections observers with relevant information.
When this publication questioned whether one day of training is sufficient, Bess registered his confidence in the time-frame commenting that the electronic process is “straight forward.”