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Voter turnout a constant trickle throughout Berbice
By Malisa Playter-Harry
Persons filing in to vote this morning at a polling location at Whim.
There was a trickle of voters throughout yesterday at various polling stations in their respective local authority areas for this year’s hugely anticipated local government elections in Region 6. There was an increase later in the day when persons who would have concluded working for the day ventured to cast their vote.
Reports reaching this publication indicated that there were no major hiccups.
Regional Chairman David Armogan, who voted in New Amsterdam, said that the process was smooth, but he was surprised that while he was there to vote at approximately 7:30 am yesterday, he was the only person doing so at the time.
“I am kind of surprised that at this time of the morning we should have had more people lining up to vote, but I suspect that more people had to work today…today being a working day, and so maybe at some point their employers will give them time to vote. It doesn’t look too nice this time in the morning”.
He added that it was “disappointing” but opined that “in order to facilitate the voting, the day should have been declared a national holiday. Traditionally, local government has not attracted as big a turnout as the general, and it has been happening all over the world. I do hope it is better than the last time, because people are more aware of local democracy and how it is that they can contribute to development. People should vote. If you don’t vote you are saying to whoever is there that they have to do what they must do… and so you shouldn’t complain, because you didn’t exercise that franchise to select the person of your choice”.
The Chairman highlighted that there were some minor issues brought to his attention, with one being that ink had spilled over a few ballot papers. He stated that they were investigating it. He also mentioned that persons who did not find their names on a list “they didn’t seem too interested in searching to find it on another list” but other than that, the process went well.
Acting Commander of B’ Division Paul Langevine, in a brief comment to the media at his office, disclosed that “the day has been good, we started on time, and since we would have started, there was no report of any incident and no issue really of concern. Everything is smooth. Persons are voting and it’s moving comfortably. Some of the police that didn’t get to vote previously we tried to put them to places close where they live so that they can vote”.
Meanwhile, persons living in the Plegt Anker area were allowed to vote for the first time for the local government elections. Peter Tombron, Candidate for APNU in constituency 4, said that the turnout was slow, but picked up around 10:00 – 10:30 am “then I started to see persons coming out to vote”.
Ramesh Sookoo, 43, who is registered in Plegt Anker but lives in Mara, East Bank Berbice said, “it was fast, we feeling nice that the community can now get some development”. 94, 181 electors were registered in Region Six with 263 polling stations.
There are 21 local authority areas in Region 6.
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