By Svetlana Marshall

Though peaceful, the excitement in Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), is rising high with the main political parties and voluntary group contesting the Local Government Elections keeping their fingers crossed ahead of the close of polls.

Political candidates from the three main groups – the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and the Bartica Independence Green Alliance (BIGA) have all expressed concern over the low voter turn – out thus far.

In Bartica, 6,920 persons are expected to vote, but when the 22 polling stations opened at 6:00hrs across the municipal area, only a few persons turned up to vote.

At some of the Polling Stations, including Future Builders Nursery School, Two Miles Primary School and Pam’s Family Circle were empty at around 8:00hrs this morning.

Notwithstanding the concern over low voters’ turn-out, those who voted were overwhelmed with joy to have participated in these historic elections. Since 1994, Local Government Elections are today being held after 22 years.

“I feel good to be voting for the first time in Local Government Elections,” 64-year-old Merlin Nathan said shortly after exiting the Hill View Nursery School Polling Station at Third Avenue in Constituency Three.

For her, the voting process was easy and as such she was able to vote for the political party or group of her choice in the Proportional Representation (PR) component of the elections, and a Candidate in the First-Past-The-Post component.

The majority of the voters, who spoke to Guyana Chronicle earlier today, concluded that the new voting system not only ran smoothly but it was also easy to understand.

However, 76-year-old Randolph George and his 68-year-old wife Lucy had no clue what to do when they entered the polling station at Baptiste Place. The elderly couple, who hail from Mora Camp approximately one and a half mile from Central Bartica, said they did not benefit from the voter’s education programme since they do not have access to television or radio due to the lack of electricity.

“I didn’t know who to vote for so I just put it anywhere…no body never explain what we have to do, so I just do anything,” Lucy George said even as her husband butt in saying: “I vote though, I vote at de top and at de bottom.”