AT 06:00 hrs today, the eight polling stations in Lethem will be opened for persons to cast their votes for political parties or individual candidates whom they believe will best represent their constituencies at the local government level.

Some 2,612 registered voters are expected to make their way to those polling stations to cast their votes at this year’s Local Government Elections (LGE), which is the second since 1994.

Residents were as enthusiastic about the LGEs as the staff of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

One of the officials of GECOM’s Lethem office, Gomatie Jurdodhan, said the eight polling stations were vetted and are ready for today’s elections.
“We had a briefing this morning with the presiding officers (POs) and the keys to the polling stations were handed over to them… everything is well on track for today,” she said in an invited comment. She added that the systems and procedures are now better because of the advent of technology.

Each polling station will have four primary staff and one back-up. She said the staffers were not only able to get prepared for “D-Day” but, they had also educated the voters about LGEs.

Jurdodhan said more persons have started to ask questions about the elections, a feature which was absent from the previous LGEs in 2016.

“GECOM had employed a number of programmes which were geared at sensitising persons about LGEs… in that case we are expecting a higher voter turnout but it is still up to the parties to get their supporters out to vote,” she said.

Residents were evidently more aware about the elections, given that there was a buzz about it at every corner.

One resident, Janel Fredericks , said she was not inclined to vote the last time because she did not fully understand what LGEs were.

The resident of Central Lethem lauded GECOM for its sensitisation programmes and even commended the political parties for campaigning intensely throughout the elections season.
Former Mayor of Lethem and representative of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Carlton Beckles said voters have started to realise the value of local government and in years to come they will understand it even better.

Beckles said APNU has done its best to sensitise and mobilise its supporters, so much so he was confident that they would win all five constituencies that comprise Lethem.
The former mayor was confident that his party has proven itself over the last three years since there have been better roads, refurbished and new leisure parks, provisions for education in the form of transportation, bursaries and many more.

Beckles believes that LGEs are a step in the right direction and APNU is contesting in all five constituencies. The party has five constituency representatives and 25 Proportional Representation (PR) candidates.

The Alliance For Change (AFC) has 15 PR candidates and three constituency representatives; the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has 24 PR candidates and five constituency representatives.

In 2016, the APNU+AFC coalition which contested the LGEs together got, 662 votes while the PPP/C secured 457 votes, giving the parties three and two seats respectively.