The right to vote must not left to hostile poll worker

Jan 11, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

No. It must not be left exclusively to the election official at the polling site to determine who is eligible to vote. That is conferring significant power to GECOM officials who are known to be hostile to the PPP.

There must be checks and balances. The PNC is just trying another gimmick with biometrics implementation; but this would not work. It’s a matter of trust and the PNC simply cannot be trusted. The PNC tried several methods to get elected in the past. This includes overseas voting, proxy voting, confiscating ballot boxes en masse and taking it to GDF headquarters and counting ballots at a central location with intimidating armed forces presence. When the boxes were opened, wads of ballots were found tied by rubber bands. The PNC just cannot be trusted.

Writing in the SN of 1-8-23 titled: “The use of biometrics fulfills both the ID and attestation requirements mandatory for voting” GECOM Commissioner, Mr. Vincent Alexander

was of the opinion that “If the person does not have an ID card, he/she can attest to being a person on the list and by virtue of that attestation, along with the verification of particulars such as date of birth, registered address, inter alia, under oath, is allowed to vote. The ID card and the attestation are optional mechanisms used to determine the person’s identity and to his/ her entitlement. In other words, the election official must, beyond reasonable doubt or positive degree of probability, based on which of the standards GECOM applies, determine that a voter has presented himself or herself to vote.”

This suggestion by Mr. Alexander is another trick to get power through the back door. It would disenfranchise a significant number of voters to swing the elections nationwide by hostile GECOM officials who are rigging it from the starter gate. If horses lined up at the starting gate at the last minute, mind you, they are to be examined; however they are disqualified by some “official who must go beyond reasonable doubt” were to rule they cannot be allowed to enter at the start (right to vote) of the race how would any horse or horses reach the end line (read vote).?

In the 1961 and 1964 elections there was no hullabaloo about the voting process whatsoever.
Only when the PNC took power all hell broke loose about election shenanigans. It’s time we have a fair fight in all future elections bereft of harum scarum suggestions from the likes of Mr. Alexander.

Sincerely,

Sultan Mohamed

Dear Editor, GECOM Commissioner, Letters, PNC, Sultan Mohamed

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The right to vote must not left to hostile poll worker

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