81.8% turnout recorded for joint services voting

-cops to probe reported attempt by soldier to vote twice

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has announced that 8,369 of the 10,226 registered disciplined services voters cast their ballots during early voting last Friday for the general and regional elections.

A breakdown of this number, which represents a turnout of 81.8%, was provided by commission spokeswoman Yolanda Ward and it showed that 5,400 ranks, or 80.6%, of the registered Guyana Police Force members voted, as did 2,539 ranks or 83.6% of the registered Guyana Defence Force members, and 430 ranks or 88.1% of the registered Guyana Prison Service members.

A majority of the ranks were present at the polling stations before the 6 am openings on Friday and a significant number of stations reported a 65% turnout by lunchtime.

The figures, according to the two main political parties, augurs well for the turnout on March 2nd, when the rest of the population goes to polls.

Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield had told this newspaper previously that 76% of registered ranks cast their ballots in 2015. This correlated strongly with the 72% of the total population who cast their votes one week later on May 11.

In a press statement released yesterday, the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition said that it was “heartened” by the high turnout among the members of the disciplined services.

It noted that the turnout was higher than that achieved in 2015, when the coalition went on to win the elections.

According to the statement, “life for the hardworking members of the Joint Services has improved significantly under the APNU+AFC Coalition Government with vastly increased salaries, lower taxes, more training opportunities, better conditions of work, meritorious promotions, more equipment and greater resources.”

“We are committed to ensuring that their quality of life, like that of all Guyanese, improves even more during our next term in government,” the party added, while pointing out that it is only the APNU+AFC coalition that has committed to ensuring that every member of the joint services is a homeowner.

Meanwhile, General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Bharrat Jagdeo said his party was “extremely pleased that voting went relatively smooth.”

He added that they were equally happy about the feedback received from numerous joint services members, whom he said were tired of the incumbent’s promises and peeved at the removal of the one month end of year bonus his party had routinely offered the service members.