…Chief-of-staff, Top Cop hail process as smooth

UNDER the close watch of international, regional and local observers, members of the Disciplined Services across the country cast their ballots on Friday- one week before the civilian population takes to the polls.

In excess of 10,000 members of the Disciplined Services were expected to vote at 86 locations across the 10 Administrative Regions. The Disciplined Services include members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and the Guyana Prison Service (GPS).

At the GDF Headquarters Base Camp Ayanganna, Georgetown, voting commenced promptly at 06:00hrs at three locations – at the all ranks mess, in the auditorium and at the Base Office. Chief-of-Staff of the Defence Force, Brigadier Patrick West was among the first set of soldiers, who voted at Base Camp Ayanganna.

Moments after exercising his political franchise, the Chief-of-Staff told journalists that the

electoral process was being smoothly executed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). He noted that at Base Camp Ayanganna in excess of 500 ranks were listed to cast their ballots, and, in total, approximately 3,000 soldiers were expected to vote at various locations across the country. Adding that 95 per cent of the ranks were scheduled to vote on Friday, the Chief-of-Staff noted that the remaining 5 per cent, who were unable to vote will cast their ballots on Monday, March 2, 2020, the official elections day with the general population.

“Each soldier is required to vote for the candidate of his or her choice,” Brigadier West told journalists. In total, there are 11 political parties contesting the General and Regional Elections. Those parties include the ruling party – A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic – the main opposition political party, A New and United Guyana (ANUG), Change Guyana, The Citizenship Initiative (TCI), The New Movement (TNM) and Liberty and Justice Party (LJP).

In the lead up to Friday’s Elections, President David Granger – the Presidential Candidate of the APNU+AFC and the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo both pleaded with the Disciplined Services for their support. In responding to a question posed on whether it was ethical for the political leaders to appeal to the members of the Security Forces in the lead up to the elections, the Chief-of-Staff said he saw nothing wrong with the move.

“Anybody can appeal to any citizen. At the end of the day, we are all citizens of Guyana and we will all have those choices to make now and in the future, and I don’t see anything wrong with political leaders sharing from their own platforms their own intentions about what they will do for Guyana. People will have to judge based upon the history of their own lives, the desires of themselves and families for a better nation and then make those correct decisions,” Brigadier West told journalists.

All elections critical
With Guyana now a Petroleum State, local and international observers have dubbed the General and Regional Elections, the “mother of all elections,” on the basis that the party elected to Government would be responsible for the transformational development of the country as an oil producing nation. But the Chief-of-Staff said for him, all elections are critical.

“Every election is critical. Every stage of the development of Guyana is critical, and I don’t believe that any one election should be rated above the other because in the process of development there are stages that would have to be conducted in any nation or acquired to, assumed to…elections are those stages where people do retrospections or reflections and then they make choices as to how they will go forward. So I wouldn’t say that any one is more critical than the other,” he said.

While media operatives were allowed to photograph and video soldiers during the electoral process, they were not allowed to engage those ranks by orders of the Chief-of-Staff. Noting that all statements would be issued by the G5 Branch, Brigadier West said the decision was taken to safeguard the integrity of soldiers and the Defence Force. Ahead of the elections, party paraphernalia and political campaigning were totally restricted across GDF’s Base Camps.

Police vote early
Meanwhile over at the Guyana Police Force’s Officers’ Mess at Eve Leary, the Commissioner of Police, Leslie James said voting was taking place as planned. “I was briefed by the Deputy Commissioner of Operations, Maxine Graham, and according to her everything is going smoothly,” he told journalists while noting that voting commenced at 6:00hrs as statutorily required.

In total, 6,700 ranks attached to the Guyana Police Force were expected to cast their ballots at the various polling stations established throughout the country.

Over at the Coast Guard Headquarters at Ramp Road Ruimveldt, Georgetown, coast guards were seen casting their ballots with ease as the number expected to vote there was less than 300. “Voting would have started [and] that started at 6:00hrs. We have 266 persons [who] are expected to vote at this site here,” Commanding Officer for the Coast Guards, Sean Harmon told Guyana Chronicle. Voting for Coast Guards took place at three other locations. In total, more than 300 were expected to vote on Friday.

“If they cannot vote today, they will vote on March 2nd because the names that are on the military voters’ list would have been extracted from the OLE [Official List of Electors], and so therefore, based on that, if they cannot vote today, then on elections’ day March 2nd, they will vote,” the Lieutenant Commander explained.

In the Guyana Prison Service, a total of 488 officers were listed to vote. At the Georgetown Prison Conference Room, 115 officers were expected to vote while at the Lusignan Prison Officer’s Sports Club, 128 were listed to vote. Meanwhile, at the Mazaruni Prison Officer’s Sports Club, 92 prison officers were scheduled to vote and in New Amsterdam at the Prison Officer’s Sports Club another 113. The smallest batch of prison officers (40) voted at the Timehri Prison Officer’s Sports Club. Fifty-nine new recruits will vote March 2.

The Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels voted just after 09:00hrs at the Georgetown Prison Conference Room. He told journalists that the GECOM officers reminded him of the voting process. “The ballot paper was clear, so in terms of recognizing who it is you wanted to vote for that was easy as was explained in the various ads that were running over and over,” Samuels said. +

At Base Camp Ayanganna, Police Officers’ Mess, and at the Coast Guard Headquarters, President David Granger, who was accredited as an agent, was seen observing the electoral process in the company of Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon. The Deputy Chief Elections Officer, Roxanne Myers; GECOM Commissioners Robeson Benn, Desmond Trotman and Sase Gunraj; and representatives from the Carter Center and European Union were also seen observing the process.