An abrupt decision to limit the ferry services across the Essequibo River on Elections Day affected scores of voters who had planned to utilise that mode of transportation to get to their respective polling places to exercise their franchise.
The Transport and Harbour Department (T&HD) had announced that a decision was taken to limit ferries travelling the Parika route to Supenaam, Leguan and Wakenaam. Vessels leaving Parika to Supenaam, Supenaam to Parika, along with the Leguan and Wakenaam services were restricted to only one trip at 16:00h. Along with that, no ferry services were available between Parika and Bartica.
Commenting on the issue, Presidential Candidate of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Irfaan Ali said his party had to put systems in place to help voters travel across the river to access their polling places.
“A decision was taken for the Essequibo boat not to do its normal trips today so we had to put some systems in place to assist voters who want to get back to Essequibo to vote… From the requests we would have had, we had some hotline numbers to assist people. From that intervention, there were a lot of requests. So, I can’t tell the extent to which people would have planned to utilise the boat to get back to Essequibo to vote but from what we put out there to help voters, we had enormous response from last night to now,” Ali explained during an interview with reporters after he cast his ballot at the Leonora Technical Institute, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).
Additionally, the Public Health Ministry ceased the ferry service between Guyana and Suriname from February 29 to March 7, due to the increase in coronavirus cases.
“The Ministry of Health believes that since our security will be dispatched for the General and Regional Elections, travel activity at this soft entry point can increase significantly, thus posing a threat to the citizens of Guyana,” the Ministry said in a correspondence to the Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan.
On Monday Ramjattan commented on the issue, saying: “Lots of countries are making certain prohibitory orders in relation to entry to your country and that’s what we are doing.”
However, lots of Guyanese were left stranded and stakeholders believe the move was a deliberate attempt by the Government to disenfranchise those individuals.

https://guyanatimesgy.com/vote...y-services-on-e-day/