By Svetlana Marshall

While confirming that there were two cases of the ballots of electors being illegally photographed and publicized on social media, Chief Election Officer (CEO), Vishnu Persaud, today said the Elections Secretariat has been unable to identify the source of the illegal actions.

At a press conference, Mr. Persaud told reporters that GECOM is still to determine the location where the breach occurred.

“We have not been able to determine how, when or where those photographs might have been taken but they are photographs of actual ballots,” the Chief Elections Officer said.

The Representation of the People Act prohibits persons from sharing information about their vote.

Ahead of last Friday’s Disciplined Services vote, and amid growing concerns by political parties about vote buying, GECOM took a decision to prohibit the use of cell phones in the voting compartment as a means of protecting the secrecy of the vote.

While there was a breach of the law, Persaud said GECOM has not launched any investigation into the matter, and the CEO questioned the necessity of such an investigation.

However, when grilled on the issue, Mr. Persaud said the Secretariat will now seek guidance from the Elections Commission to ascertain whether an investigation is warranted.

 “GECOM itself does not have investigative capacity to do that. We would have to take something like this to the commission to receive guidance, and I believe obviously has been the case, when we would have had multiple registrations, we report them to the police with a request for investigation. So, we do not have authority to interfere with a person who may take their cell phone out and try to. We will as far as practicable apply the rules as approved by the Commission. What we will do is make a note of any attempt to photograph the ballot and make a report to the police,” Persaud said.

He, however, told reporters that there was no official complaint submitted to the Guyana Elections Commission that the guidelines put in place to safeguard the secrecy of the ballot did not work. According to him, there was no “wholesale” publication of ballots, and he was comfortable that the system worked.

To prohibit persons from using their phones to capture their ballots, GECOM, as part of a menu of measures, indicated that voters would be required to place their cell phones on a table near the voting compartment, and that the voting compartment would be strategically placed to allow polling agents to keenly monitor the voter to ensure that he or she is not using the cell phone while voting.

But APNU Chief Scrutineer, Carol Smith-Joseph, during a visit to one of the voting stations on Friday, expressed dissatisfaction with the regards to the positioning of the voting compartment. Additionally, News Source understands that, in some cases, notices were not placed outside of the polling stations or announcements made edifying voters on the prohibition.

Persaud said while he received similar reports, he was able to confirm that the measures were in place.

“This is the first time that this thing has been put in place, it was a testing ground. It is something that we hope to improve on for elections day Monday coming, and in fact, the rules, these instructions pertaining to the prohibition of cell phones is being sent to every single polling station as a reminder with a view to ensuring that the rules are applied,” the CEO said.

Additionally, he said the Presiding Officers would be briefed on the correct way to position the voting compartments.

Persaud said GECOM will do its best to ensure the rules are observed, but he noted that there is only so much that GECOM can do.

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