After a high voter turnout that was projected to reach record numbers, the Guyana Elec-tions Commission (Gecom) suffered a delay in the planned release of preliminary results last night.
Gecom Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally told a media briefing after 11 pm that hard copies of statements of poll were still unavailable and he appealed to the nation for calm, while acknowledging the anxiety that could be caused by the delay. There were reports of “mini flare-ups,” he said, which had to be addressed.
“…Remain calm and allow the process to unfold,” he said, while urging against any actions that could be seen as inciting or hostile. “I call upon the leaders of the contesting political parties, with whom I have been in dialogue, not to do anything which could generate tension, unease or even fear in our normally peaceful society.”
Surujbally explained that while polling closed at 6 last evening, the eligible voters who remained in the lines at the various polling stations had to be processed before the voting was closed to ensure they were not disenfranchised, in keeping with the law.
In addition, he said there were conflicting reports of presiding officers not allowing party agents or observers to monitor the counting of ballots—a situation that had to be sorted out, which also took time.
Surujbally said that the preliminary results would be released from 9 am today.
At an earlier briefing at Gecom Media Centre, at the Pegasus Hotel, Surujbally said he was hoping to have final results of the elections available by this evening, but he stopped short of committing himself to a time for an official announcement.
“I’ll tell you what I want, I would love to have that done by tomorrow evening, but I am not going to pin [Chief Election Officer Gocool] Boodoo down,” he said. The last elections saw a declaration after three days.
Before results are declared, the Returning Officer (RO) of each of the 10 Electoral Districts are to collate results from the respective polling stations under their supervision, in the present of party agents, and record the total which is eventually publicly declared. If there is controversy over the count at a specific polling station, the RO could recount the votes if requested to do so. Such a request would have to be made by noon today.
Initial reports during the 12-hours of polling in densely-populated urban regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 yesterday pointed to a high turnout by voters at the start of the day.
Four hours after polls opened, Surujbally reported a “great turnout” among the over 475,000 eligible voters. Later, Head of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Observer Mission Professor Gordon Shirley suggested that turnout could reach record numbers, while noting that at least half of eligible voters were estimated to have cast their ballots at midday at places visited by his team. But up to press time Gecom was unable to provide an estimated percentage.
Voter turnout at the last general and regional elections declined to 68.82%, down from 91.76% in 2001 and 88.42% in 1997.
‘Episodes’
After the close of polling, Surujbally said that there were “little episodes of indiscretions” although voting continued peacefully throughout the day. “But at the end of the day, all controlled, all surmountable,” he said.
One such episode resulted in the presiding officer at a polling station in Berbice being fired, after distributing tendered ballots to voters. The incident occurred at Eversham, Berbice and afterward Surujbally said that in instances where Gecom staff lapsed, they would be fired immediately.
“So, they have been removed from their positions for expressed dotish-ness,” he declared, while adding that Gecom has competent staff to fill the resulting vacancies.
Tendered ballots are usually handed out where there is doubt about the eligibility of the person to vote or some other controversy. A decision is later taken on whether the ballot can be validly counted. Otherwise regular ballot papers have to be handed out and this wasn’t the case at Eversham.
“It is very clear what a tendered ballot is there for by law, so when you’re seeing the first four persons go into the polling station and they are issued tendered ballots, you know something is wrong, immediately, or for that matter fourteen,” Surujbally said.
Persons had complained that they were given tendered ballots, this newspaper was told. No information was provided at the briefing on how many voters were affected and if they were then allowed to vote using regular ballots.
Surujbally said the incident was isolated. “It is the only singular occurrence that we know of and I am not worried,” he added.
He added that observer groups are calling in and informing of instances where they encounter “aberrations” and Gecom was acting on them immediately. “…We are uncovering, on our own… some anomalies and we are going to be correcting those with immediacy,” he said.
Assistant Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield also noted that at Tucville Secondary School, some time during the course of the afternoon, a report of a visit by a candidate who sought to observe proceedings at the station saw persons converging at the entrance road. The police, he said, closed the entrance to avoid persons running into the compound of Tucville Secondary to prevent any further situation from developing. “But the police were in control and the crowd receded after about 40 minutes from that location,” he said, while noting that he had not received any reports of an attempt to remove a ballot box from the area.
‘Debunk’
Surujbally also addressed several concerns raised by opposition coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), including reports of multiple voting at the Timehri Primary School, which he denied. “I keep asking for the substantive evidence for certain things,” he said, while noting that many times Gecom receives reports and follows them up and finds them to be untrue.
He also denied that persons had national ID cards, but were not listed on the Official List of Electors, saying it was not possible. “I am going to debunk that now and that’s the last I am going to speak about that,” he noting, while not identifying APNU.
He also announced that Gecom would stand by its decision not to allow party polling agents to vote where they are stationed, while noting that the law does not provide for them to do so.
“We are not going to break the law and the law is very clear,” he said. The Representation of the People Act, he added, spoke “very clearly” on the situation, identifying only the Chief Election Officer, the Deputy Chief Election Officer, the Returning Officer, the Deputy Returning Officer, the Elections Clerk, Presiding Officer, the Assistant Presiding Officer and the Poll Clerk as being permitted to vote at polling stations at which they would be working.
APNU had urged Gecom to consider employment certificates for its polling and counting agents to be allowed to vote where they were stationed, saying that failure to do so would disenfranchise over 300 of its poll workers. It also reported yesterday that PPP/C agents had allegedly been granted certificates at some locations.
Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, APNU’s prime ministerial candidate, said the party applied some months ago to Gecom to allow the group of persons in question to be issued with certificates of employment to permit them to vote at the polling stations where they will be working yesterday. He said that the party was informed on that the applications were denied.
However, Surujbally was adamant that only Gecom staff were allowed to vote at the places they were stationed to work. He noted that the polling agents would not be disenfranchised since they could leave to vote at anytime during the day and return to the station.
“If I were a betting man, I would wager that very few, if any, not one of those 300 would be disenfranchised,” he said. “Why? Because we have so many polling stations all over the district in which they are living that they, especially since it’s a holiday…can get down to their area where they have registered …vote and get back, especially in a period of lull,” he continued.
Acknowledging that there may be some element of distrust, Surujbally indicated that there would be at least seven or eight other persons at a polling station. “It would take great collusion for someone to do something in that period while that party agent is out of the office,” he observed.
Candidates for the respective contesting parties, he added, could also relieve the agents while they were absent to exercise their franchise. “There is no problem,” he emphasised.
He also addressed the report that a company was not releasing its workers to vote—a reference to the RUSAL-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI), which was highlighted by APNU and AFC. BCGI later said it had made buses available to transport its workers to polling stations. These employees will be paid in accordance with current labour legislation, BCGI said in a statement.
The law, Surujbally also said, requires employers to allow employees reasonable time to vote on election day without penalty.
He denied the claim that “new polling stations were emerging,” while explaining that as a result of the “decrepit-ness” of the building resulting in a polling division being moved from one school to another building nearby. “In a nutshell, no big deal,” he said.
At polling stations, he added, police were there and did their jobs, while rural constables were present in an auxiliary capacity.
