Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Dr Steve Surujbally said yesterday that plans are in place to disseminate elections results to the nation in the “fastest time possible.”
Updating the media, electoral observers and members of the diplomatic corps, Surujbally said (Gecom) had requested and received help from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for technical assistance to transmit the results in a timely manner.
According to him, Gecom suffered a “great embarrassment” at the last elections when the results were not transmitted to the nation as Gecom had desired.
In past elections, delays in announcing results, had caused much speculation, agitation and protest. When asked how soon after elections, a declaration of the winner will be made, a peeved Surujbally emphasised that Gecom will not “sacrifice accuracy at the altar of expediency.” However, he added, “if all goes well,” a declaration of a winner could be made “at best” late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
The Gecom chairman charged members of the media and observers to make it known that “only Gecom has legitimate rights to make a declaration of the winner.” At the last elections prior to Gecom making an official declaration, then chief election officer Gocool Boodhoo was about to announce that President Donald Ramotar had won a parliamentary majority. However, this was quickly corrected by opposition Gecom commissioner Vincent Alexander, who noticed that Boodhoo had applied an incorrect formula.
Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield explained the process of the information getting to Gecom from polling stations. He said after the polls have been closed, the votes tallied and the Statements of Poll (SoP) signed, verification of the results will be done by the CEO. Polling results will be posted outside polling stations after the votes have been tallied.
According to Lowenfield, aggregated results will be transmitted every two hours. He noted that as results come in from the various regions, they will be verified and the preliminary results communicated to the media and the public. He noted that final results will not be made until all SoPs have been processed, verified by the CEO and have received final certification by the commissioners.
Lowenfield cautioned that not all SoPs will arrive at the same time and urged that patience should be exercised by all.
According to Surujbally, things are in place for a relatively smooth election day. He said that Gecom has 2,299 polling stations throughout the country. He said that polling day staff have been trained to ensure all adhere to the rules.
UNDP Resident Representative Khadija Musa said that in response to a request from Gecom, the organisation secured two technical experts and equipment to help with the dissemination of preliminary results. Expert Chris Kyriakides explained that only results provided by the CEO will be disseminated. He said that this will done as a bar chart with results for the various parties and in a tabulated format where the results for each party will be listed.
