Two days after the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) decided to have a recount of votes cast, it remains unclear when, where and how it will be undertaken.
A meeting of the Commission on Friday that was expected to decide the “modalities” of the recount came to a premature end after a decision was taken to sanitise GECOM’s headquarters during what was supposed to be a one-hour adjournment.
Commissioners told Stabroek News that when they returned for the meeting just after 2 pm, “no one was there.”
GECOM Public Relations Officer Yolanda Ward later confirmed that the Kingston headquarters had been sanitised.
Since then Chairperson retired Justice Claudette Singh, the only person who can convene a meeting of the Commission, has not made contact with the six other members to explain the way forward.
The Commission is due to have a statutory meeting on Tuesday but since there has been no statutory meeting for the duration of March commissioners are not sure whether this meeting will be convened.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Friday called for the national recount to be televised or live streamed on social media so that the entire country can be part of the process.
Speaking at a virtual press conference, Jagdeo argued that President David Granger through his Commissioners is likely to “continue to try to sabotage or undermine” the recount. “They say the right things publicly but then undermined the process moving forward,” he repeatedly stressed.
According to Jagdeo the staff of GECOM’s Secretariat has so compromised themselves that it would be hard for them to lead the process. He called for a return of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) high level team and many other independent agencies.
He also argued that the recount should be publicly conducted so that all Guyanese can see that it is done in a “fully transparent environment.”
On Friday, GECOM explained that Justice Singh maintained that she would facilitate a recount and there would therefore be a recount of all the regions in chronological order, i.e. Region 1 to Region 10. (The finalisation of the results of the polls has been stalled due to controversy over the purported declarations for Region Four, which observers and all parties save the ruling coalition say lacked credibility.)
The Commission further explained that the decision was made against the backdrop of Article 162 (1) (b) of the Consti-tution of Guyana, which mandates the Commission to “take such action as appear to it necessary or expedient to ensure impartiality, fairness and compliance with the provisions of the Constitution.”
Following the decision, Chief Election Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield was asked to provide a framework for the operationalisation of the recount.
In response to this direction, Lowenfield requested guidance from the Commission on a number of legal and procedural issues in relation to the recount before he could proceed to operationalise the decision.
Government-nominated Commissioner Vincent Alexander clarified for the media that some of the matters which Lowenfield wished to have clarified related to the type of recount: whether it would be merely a numerical recount or consideration of everything within the ballot boxes.
He explained that there has to be a clear directive and an order from GECOM to the administration on this question. “The administration has made it clear that we have to give them clear directions about what we mean by a recount and how we proceed with the recount. That has not yet been done, that discussion has started…We have to decide whether the recount is merely a recount of the votes or whether all the materials in the box will be taken into consideration. That is the proxies, the people who voted without ID cards and all of that,” he told reporters.
GECOM on March 15 had agreed to have a recount of all votes cast in the March 2 polls under the supervision of a high-level team from CARICOM.
This process was halted after Justice Franklyn Holder granted APNU+AFC candidate Ulita Moore injunctions stopping a recount and preventing GECOM from altering the declaration made by the Region 4 Returning Officer Mingo.
The injunctions were granted just as the commission was contemplating a legal opinion from the Chief Parliamentary Counsel who had advised that the Commission could not gazette an Order legitimizing the recount.
Jagdeo has repeatedly argued that since the applicant is a candidate for the governing APNU+AFC coalition then President Granger as leader of the coalition is in a position to compel her to withdraw the case. This has, however, not happened and the matter has now moved to the Appeal Court after the Full Court ruled that it had no jurisdiction to litigate the matter. A decision on that appeal is to be made today.
